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AnD. IF I GO AND PREPARE A PLACE FOR. YOU 

W I WIU COME AGAIN” 







The Marked Bible 

A WONDERFULLY interesting story by the 
author of “Ella Simpson, Neighborhood 
Transformer.” How a mother’s Bible, placed in 
the trunk of a wayward son as he was leaving 
home to follow the sea, spoke in due time, not 
only to the wayward son, but to others as well. 

Paper covers, price 15c. 

Companion Booklets 

Bible in the Critics’ Den 
Christ Our Advocate 
Christian Science 

Ella Simpson, Neighborhood Transformer 
Lord’s Day, the Test of the Ages 
Matthew 24, the Second Coming of Christ 
Saints’ Inheritance 
Spirit World and a Future Life 
Sure Word of Prophecy 

These booklets average about 100 pages each. 
All may be obtained neatly packed in a box at 
$1.00 postpaid. 


Order from our agency in your state if address is known. 

PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING ASSN. 

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA 

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA 

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA 

PORTLAND, OREGON CRISTOBAL, CANAL ZONE 
















Our Lord’s Return 














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“ Now learn a parable of tbe fig tree; wben bis branch is yet tender, 
and puttetb forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh; so like¬ 
wise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it 
, even at the doors.” Matt. 24:32, 33. 


is near. 

















































©ur ILorb’s Return 


An earnest review of the scriptural evidences 
which establish the great Christian doctrine of 
the second coming of Christ, together 
with a close study of the prophecies 
relating to this glorious event 
and the early fulfilment of 
these prophecies. 


By Carlyle B. Haynes 


Author of 


The Other Side of Death,” ‘‘The Christian Sabbath,” and 
“ Spiritualism versus Christianity.” 


PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION, 
Mountain View, California 

Brookfield, Illinois. Portland, Oregon, Kansas City, Missouri 
Calgary, Alberta, Canada Cristobal, Canal Zone 


Copyrighted 1918, by Southern Publishing Association, Nashville, Tenn. 














CONTENTS 


Chapter Title 

1. “I Go to the Father” : : 

2. Jesus Will Come Again : 

3. The Coming Kingdom : : 

4. The Purpose of His Coming 

5. Our Lord’s Own Prophecy : 

6. The Time of His Coming 

7. The Signs of His Coming 

8. The Message of His Coming 

9. The Manner of His Coming 

10. The Millennium : : 

11. The Third Coming of Christ 

12. The Home of the Saved : 


iBTm 

-HM 


Page 

5 

: 9 

16 

: 30 

38 

: 50 

56 

: 80 

90 

: 103 

115 

: 121 


Passed by the Chief Military Censor, 
Division of Military Intelligence, 
Washington, D. C., October 9. 1918. 


4 


By Transfer 

JUL 31 <924 





CHAPTER ONE 

“I GO TO THE FATHER” 

NINETEEN centuries ago the Son of God was on earth. 

He came as the Saviour of men and of the world. 
By his sacrifice on Calvary he made a way of escape 
from death for every human being. 

At his first advent he remained on earth for thirty- 
three and a half years. The last three and a half years of 
his life were spent in public ministry. During this time 
he not only taught the principles of the gospel himself, 
but he made provision, by calling and ordaining the 
disciples, for the gospel to be preached to the very end 
of the world. 

He told his disciples repeatedly while with them that 
he was soon to depart and return to the place whence 
he had come into the world. They heard him say to the 
Pharisees, “Yet a little while am I with you, and then 
I go unto him that sent me.” John 7:33. But like the 
Pharisees they were dull of hearing, and did not under¬ 
stand. He said plainly to them, “Now I go my way 












OUR LORD’S RETURN 


to him that sent 
me.” John 16:5. 

He assured them 
that it was ex¬ 
pedient for them 
that he go away. 

John 16:7. He 
said again, “A lit¬ 
tle while, and ye 
shall not see me, 

. . . because 

I go to the Fa¬ 
ther.” John 16: 

16. But when 
he went away 
they were not 
ready for his de¬ 
parture. 

But before he 
returned to the 
heavens from 
which he had 
come he accom¬ 
plished the great 

. 1-11 “ALONE IN GETHSEMANE” 

work which he 

came to do. He laid down his life for the salvation of 
men. Alone in Gethsemane, with none to help or com¬ 
fort, he drained the last scalding drop of the fiery cup, 
the cup that none other could drain. From Gethsemane 
he was taken by the mob; priests and rulers insulted 
and jeered him; the whole nation taunted and gibed 
him; but not one cry was forced from his pale lips by 
pain, or thirst, or glaring noon-day sun, or thorns, or 
nails, or smitings of dirty, sin-stained hands. As a sheep 
before its shearers, so was he dumb. 




7 


"I GO TO THE FATHER’* 

The World’s Redeemer 

They hurried him before Annas and Caiaphas, and then 
before Pilate, and on to Herod, and back again to Pilate, 
always in the midst of the vociferating crowd, who buf¬ 
feted him, and smote him with the palms of their hands, 
and spit in his face, speaking sneeringly of the shame 
of his birth, and demanding that he perform for them 
a miracle. Coming the last time from Pilate’s judgment 
hall after the sentence of crucifixion had been pronounced, 
they crushed down upon the weary head the cruel crown 
of thorns and bowed the knee in mockery, and cried, 
“ Hail, King of the Jews.” With no rest through the long 
night, he was hurried from one proud ruler to another, 
weary, foot-sore, bruised and lacerated with the cruel 
scourging he had received. In addition to it all he is 
laden with the 
weight of the 
heavy cross, and, 
with no covering 
on his head from 
the mid-day sun 
but the crown of 
thorns which had 
torn his brow in 
heavy gashes, he 
staggers on, the 
world’s Redeem¬ 
er, through taunts 
and jeers and 
mocking words. 

Reaching the 
place of Calvary, 
they stretched 
him upon the 
cross ^nd drove 

the nails through .. AND DROVE THE nails through his quiver 
h 1 s quivering ING flesh - 





8 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


flesh. Then they raised the cross and let it drop with a 
dull thud into the hole prepared for it, tearing wider the 
wounds of the hands and feet where the nails had pierced. 
With jeers and mockery they watched his dying agonies. 
And thus the Son of God gave up his life for us. 

“He Was Taken Up” 

But he was brought up from death, and for forty days 
he walked and talked with his disciples concerning the 
great work they were commissioned to do. They were 
to preach the gospel to all the world, and Jesus promised 
that his Spirit would be with them to the end. 

Later, on an early summer morning, as many were 
gathered on the slopes of Mount Olivet listening to his 
instruction regarding their work, he was taken away from 
them into heaven. Even while they were looking at 
him,, “he was taken up; and a cloud received him out 
of their sight.” Acts 1: 9. 

Jesus Is Alive 

But Jesus is alive and at the right hand of God in 
the heavens. And through all the centuries since he 
ascended to his Father, his followers, in their trials, 
their afflictions, their hardships, their hunger, their 
persecutions, their martyrdom, and their death, have 
been cheered and sustained by that word which he spoke 
before he departed from this world, “Let not your heart 
be troubled: ... I will come again, and receive 
you unto myself.” John 14: 1-3. 

Through the ages of the past God’s people have looked 
with eager longing for the fulfilment of that glorious 
promise. They have been able to endure their hardships 
and wrongs, because they have believed with profound 
and implicit confidence that Jesus is coming to make all 
things right. On that event their hearts have' been fixed. 
All their hopes have been centered in that time when 
Jesus will come again. The second coming of Christ is the 
consummation of the hopes of the Christian Church. 



“I GO TO PREPARE A PLACE FOR YOU.” 

CHAPTER TWO 

JESUS WILL COME AGAIN 

£HOSE who in all ages have believed in the literal, 
personal, visible coming of Jesus Christ the second 
time to this earth have not followed cunningly devised 
fables. This doctrine is one of the fundamental doctrines 
of Holy Scripture. It finds a larger place in the pages 
of Holy Writ than a$y other doctrine of the church, 
this glorious event being mentioned more than three 
hundred times in the New Testament alone. To the 
devout believer in the Bible there can be no doubt that 
Jesus will come again. 

The faith of the believer in this doctrine is founded 
not on any theory of his own, but upon the clear and con¬ 
vincing testimony of the Sacred Writings, and especially 
upon the testimony of Jesus himself, who repeated again 
and again to his disciples the teaching that he would 
come the second time. An examination of the teach- 

9 







10 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


ing of the Scripture on this point will dissolve all doubts 
that may exist regarding the second coming of Christ. 

The Testimony of Jesus 

Just before his death Christ said to his disciples: 

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also 
in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, 
I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go 
and prepare a place for you, I WILL COME AGAIN, and receive 
you unto myself; that where I am there ye may be also.” John 14:1-3. 

Here is a clear-cut, unequivocal promise, the meaning 
of which there is no possibility of mistaking. The Master 
himself said, “I will come again.” In the same chapter 
he repeats this, by saying: 

“I will not leave you comfortless (orphans, margin): I will come 
to you.” John 14:18. 

And again he said: 

“I go away, and come again unto you.” John 14: 28. 

To the unbelieving Pharisees and scribes, just before 
his betrayal, he said: 

“Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he 
that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Matt. 23: 39. 

When instructing his disciples, in answer to their 
questions as to “what shall be the sign of thy coming, 
and of the end of the world?’" (Matt. 24:3) r Jesus said: 

“And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: 

. . . and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of 
heaven with power and great glory.” Matt. 24:30. 

And to his disciples again he said: 

“The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his 
angels.” Matt. 16:27. 

When adjured by the high priest at his trial, Jesus 
answered: 

“Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand 
of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” Matt. 26: 64. 

And in the last chapter of the Bible this same Jesus 
repeats three times to his servant John this truth of his 


JESUS WILL COME AGAIN 


11 


second coming. “Behold, I come quickly”; “And, 
behold, I come quickly”; “Surely I come quickly.” 
Rev. 22:7, 12, 20. 

This uniform testimony of the Saviour is enough to 
create conviction in every heart which accepts him as 
its Guide and Teacher. There is no doubt here. Jesus 
is coming again. 

The Testimony of Enoch 

But there is other testimony in the Bible in addition 
to that of Jesus himself. This truth of the second com¬ 
ing of Christ to establish an everlasting kingdom and 
judge the world has been known and taught from the 
earliest times. The ancient patriarchs, even before the 
flood, believed it and taught it. 

“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, 
saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, 
to execute judgment upon all.” Jude 14, 15. 

The Testimony of David 

David, under the inspiration of God, sang of the time 

“When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.” 
Ps. 102:16. 

And he said again: 

“For he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge 
the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.” Ps. 
96:13. 

And of this time David again says: 

“Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they 
that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be 
joyful together before the Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth: 
with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with 
equity.” Ps. 98:7-9. 

The Testimony of Isaiah 

The prophets also teach the same truth of the second 
coming of Christ. Isaiah repeatedly refers to this sub¬ 
ject. He says: 

“And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited 
for 6im and he will save us.” “For, behold the Lord cometh out of 


12 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 



his place to punish the 
inhabitants of the earth 
for their iniquity.” “ Say 
to them that are of a 
fearful heart, Be strong, 
fear not: behold your God 
will come with vengeance, 
even God with a recom¬ 
pense: he will come and 
save you.” “ Behold the 
Lord God will come with 
strong hand, and his arm 
shall rule for him.” “ For, 
behold, the Lord will 
come with fire, and with 
his chariots like a whirl- 


THE PROPHETS ALSO 
TEACH THE SECOND 
COMING OF CHRIST.” 


wind.” Isa. 25:9; 26:21; 
35:4; 40:10; 66:15. 


The Testimony of Paul 

This truth is also 
taught by the apos¬ 
tles. Paul says: 


“Every man in his own 
order: Christ the first- 
fruits ; afterward they that 
are Christ's at his com¬ 
ing.” /‘For our conversa- “and peter unites his testimony.” 
tion is in heaven; from 

whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” “Ye 
turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to 
wait for his Son from heaven.” “For what is our hope, or joy, or 
crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord 
Jesus Christ at his coming?” “To the end he may stablish your 
hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the 













JESUS WILL COME AGAIN 


13 


coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.” “For the 
Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout.” “The Lord 
Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.” “ Look¬ 
ing for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great 
God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” “So Christ was once offered 
to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he 
appear the second time.” “For yet a little while, and he that shall 
cpme will come, and will not tarry.” 1 Cor. 15: 23; Phil. 3: 20; 1 Thess. 
1:9, 10; 2:19; 3:13; 4:16; 2 Thess. 1:7; Titus 2:13; Heb. 9:28; 
10:37. 

The Testimony of Peter 

And Peter unites his testimony to that of Paul, as * 
follows: 

“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be 
blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence 
of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached 
unto you.” “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, 
and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at 
the revelation of Jesus Christ.” “And when the chief Shepherd 
shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.” 
“For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made 
known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; 
but were eye-witnesses of his majesty.” Acts 3:19, 20; 1 Pet. 1:13; 
5:4; 2 Pet. 1:16. 

The Testimony of James 

James, the brother of the Lord, gives a similar testi¬ 
mony: 

“Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. 

. . . For the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” Jas. 5:7, 8. 

The Testimony of John 

John testifies to the same truth: 

“And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, 
we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.” 
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear 
what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall 
be like him.” “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall 
see him.” 1 John 2:28; 3: 2; Rev. 1: 7. 

So important is this truth of the Lord’s second coming 
that the Father, at the time of the ascension of Jesus, 
sent two angels with a special message to the earth to 
tell his disciples that he would return. The record says: 

“And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, 
behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, 


14 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same 
Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like 
manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. ,, Acts 1:10, 11. 

The Doctrine Has Been Discredited 

This truth of the second coming of Christ is given in 
the Bible a prominence second, perhaps, to no other 
doctrine. It is evident that the men who wrote the Bible 
considered this doctrine of supreme importance. And 
it is because of this very importance that the enemy 
of our souls has labored so untiringly to discredit this 
doctrine in the eyes of the people of God. He has suc¬ 
ceeded in surrounding this subject with so much fanati¬ 
cism that the teaching of the Lord’s return itself has 
been discredited and neglected. So many sensational 
predictions have been made regarding the second coming 
of Christ, and have failed to materialize, that unbelief 
in this great event is becoming prevalent in the church, 
and the vital importance of this great subject is being 
hidden. 

But it is evident that if Christ is coming again to 
this earth, it is of the utmost importance that the in¬ 
habitants of the earth should be made acquainted with 
that fact in order that they may make such preparation 
as is needful for this wonderful event. If his coming is 
near at hand, as the Scriptures plainly teach, and there 
are certain indications and signs of God’s own giving 
which prove its nearness, then the church has, in the 
preaching of the truth of his coming, a most wonderful 
message to deliver to the world; a message which the 
church surely needs, for the obvious lack of something 
definite in present-day preaching is causing the church 
to drift upon the rocks of higher criticism and infidelity 
until her whole mission is endangered. 

In this message of the second coming of Christ, God 
is calling to his church to renew her allegiance to him, 
and just to the extent that the call is heard and obeyed 
will she succeed or fail in her great mission. This is 


JESUS WILL COME‘AGAIN 


15 


equally true of individuals. Hence it is important that 
we make a thorough investigation of this great biblical 
doctrine, and as we ascertain the truth, accept it, and 
bring our lives into harmony with it. 

Dwight L. Moody, in writing 
on this subject, wisely says: 

“To my mind this precious doctrine 
— for such I must, call it—of the re¬ 
turn of the Lord to this earth is taught 
in the New Testament as clearly as any 
other doctrine in it; yet I was in the 
church fifteen or sixteen years before I 
ever heard a sermon on it. There is 
hardly any church that does not make 
a great deal of baptism; but in all of 
Paul’s epistles I believe baptism is 
spoken of only thirteen times, while he 
speaks about the return of our Lord 
fifty times; and yet the church has had 
very little to say about it. Now I can 
see a reason for this. The devil does 
dwight l. moody not want us to see this truth; for 

nothing would wake up the church so 
much. The moment a man takes hold of the truth that Jesus Christ 
is coming back again to receive his followers to himself, this world loses 
its hold on him. Gas stocks and water stocks, and stocks in banks 
and railroads are of very much less consequence to him then. His 
heart is free, and he looks for the blessed appearing of his Lord, who, 
at his coming, will take him into his blessed kingdom.”—“ The Second 
Coming of Christpages 6 , 7. 









ANGEL SHOWING THE HOLY CITY TO JOHN 

CHAPTER THREE 

THE COMING KINGDOM 

£HE coming kingdom of Christ is the subject of many 
of the ancient prophecies of the Bible. From a study 
of these prophecies we may obtain much valuable in¬ 
formation concerning the nature of this kingdom, and 
the time when it will be established upon this earth. 

In the days of Babylon, the first universal empire, 
God gave to its king, the mighty Nebuchadnezzar, a 
dream which covered the entire course of this world’s 
history from that time to the very end of the world. In 
one night God unfolded the history of more than twenty- 
five hundred years. This prophecy is recorded in the 
second chapter of Daniel. 

The meaning of this dream was made known to the 
king by Daniel, a young Hebrew captive, who was one 
of the king’s wise men. 

“There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh 
known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. 

16 



THE COMING KINGDOM 


17 


Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these; 
as for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, 
what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth secrets 
maketh knowh to thee what shall come to pass.” Verses 28, 29. 

Attention is directed to the fact that this dream was. 
given in response to a question in the mind of Nebu¬ 
chadnezzar, a question concerning the future, “what 
should come to pass hereafter.” As he lay in wakeful¬ 
ness upon his bed, thoughts crowded in upon his mind 
regarding the future of his kingdom. Who would be 
his successor? What kind of man would he be? Would 
he be able to keep his great kingdom intact? Would 
the time ever come when some other nation w T ould over¬ 
throw the great structure which Nebuchadnezzar had 
built up? Would Babylon ever fall? Was it not more 
likely that it would stand forever, and always be the 
mistress of the world? These were the questions which 
concerned the ruler of earth’s mightiest empire as he lay 
on his bed that night. 

The Secrets of the Future Unlocked 

And as he slept God gave him a dream which unlocked 
the secrets of the future. The questions of his heart 



MAP SHOWINGTHE TERRITORY OCCUPIED BY THE GREAT FOUR UNIVERSAL 
KINGDOMS OF DANIEL TWO AND SEVEN 


2 









18 


THOU, O, KING, SAWEST, AND BEHOLD A GREAT IMAGE 
































THE COMING KINGDOM 


19 


were answered in this dream. But when he awoke, 
while he remembered that he had had a dream which 
he felt was of vital importance, he could not recall it. 
After the failure of the wise men to enlighten him, Daniel, 
given special instruction by the Lord, made known not 
only what the dream was, but also its interpretation. 

In the Latter Days 

Before considering the dream and its interpretation, 
it is important to notice that this dream contains infor¬ 
mation regarding “what shall be in the latter days.” 
It is, then, a prophecy for the present time. 

In describing the king’s dream Daniel said: 

“Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great 
image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form 
thereof was terrible. This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast 
and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of 
iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.” Verses 31-33. 

And as the king considered this remarkable image in 
his dream, he beheld 

“till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the 
image upon his feet that were iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. 
Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken 
to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer thresh¬ 
ing-floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found 
for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, 
and filled the whole earth.” Verses 34, 35. 

The Interpretation 

This was the dream as the king saw it. And now Daniel 
gives him the interpretation of it as follows: 

“Thou art this head of gold.” Verse 38. 

Babylon, the great kingdom which ruled over the then 
known world, is said by Daniel, under the inspiration 
of God, to be represented on this image by the head. 
But Babylon was not, as Nebuchadnezzar had hoped, 
to remain forever. It was to be overthrown. 

“After thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee.” Verse 39. 



20 


“WHOSE BRIGHTNESS WAS EXCELLENT.” 











THE COMING KINGDOM 


21 


This prediction was fulfilled. Years later the Medes 
and the Persians overthrew Babylon on the night of the 
great feast which Belshazzar, the grandson of Nebu¬ 
chadnezzar and his successor as king of Babylon, had 
made to a thousand of his lords, and at which he pro¬ 
faned the vessels from the temple of the true God which 
had been brought from Jerusalem. On that night Daniel, 
then an old man, had been called in to interpret the 
mysterious handwriting on the wall, and a part of his 
interpretation was, “Thy kingdom is divided, and given 
to the Medes and Persians.” Dan. 5: 28. And then the 
record is: “In that night was Belshazzar the king of the 
Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the 
kingdom, being about threescore and two years old.” 
Dan. 5:30, 31. 

The breast and arms of silver, then, of this great 
image, represent the empire which succeeded Babylon, 
the Medo-Persian empire. 

Greece and Rome 

But the course of history was not to stop with Medo- 
Persia, for there was to arise— 

“another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all 
the earth.” Dan. 2:39. 

This third kingdom, represented by the waist and 
thighs of brass on the image, represented the kingdom 
which overthrew Medo-Persia. This was Greece, under 
Alexander the Great. 

“And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as 
iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that 
breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.” Verse 40. 

The kingdom represented by the legs of iron was the 
“great iron monarchy of Rome,” which overthrew the 
Grecian empire. Rome ruled the world. She stole the 
liberties of the world. She despised God. She worshiped 
all gods save the true One. It was one of her governors, 
Pontius Pilate, who gave the decision to crucify the Just 


22 


OUR LORD'S RETURN 


One. As iron that “subdueth all things,” so Rome 
crushed the world and trampled it under her feet. 

The Division of Rome 

But Rome, too, was to fall. 

“And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potter’s clay, 
and part of iron, the kingdom [Rome] shall be divided; but there 
shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest 
the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part 
of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and 
partly broken [or weak].” Verses 41, 42. 

According to this prophecy Rome was to be divided 
into ten divisions, represented by the ten toes of the 
human figure, the ten toes of the image. Some of these 
divisions were to be strong kingdoms, and some of them 
were to be weak. 

The Ten Kingdoms 

These ten kingdoms came into existence in the terri¬ 
tory of the Roman empire between the years 351 and 
476 a. d. They were the result of the barbarian invasions 
of those times. The kingdoms were as follows: The 
Alemanni (Germany), the Franks (France), the Bur¬ 
gundians (Switzerland), the Suevi (Portugal), the Van¬ 
dals (who have been destroyed), the Anglo-Saxons 
(England), the Visigoths (Spain), the Ostrogoths (who 
have been destroyed), the Heruli (who also have been 
destroyed), and the Lombards (Italy). 

These are the ten kingdoms which are represented in 
the great image of Nebuchadnezzar by the ten toes. 
They are represented in the prophecy of the seventh 
chapter of Daniel by the ten horns of the fourth beast 
of that chapter. They include the modern nations of 
Europe. Three —the Vandals, the Heruli, and the 
Ostrogoths — have been utterly destroyed, and do not 
exist at the present time. But seven are still here, the 
nations of Germany, France, England, Portugal, Spain, 
Switzerland, and Italy. 


THE COMING KINGDOM 


23 


And it is true, just as the prophecy said it would be, 
that some of these kingdoms are strong and some of 
them weak. 

And now follows a most remarkable part of this 
prophecy. 

“And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall 
mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave 
one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.” Verse 43. 

The thought here is that attempts would be made, 
after the division of the Roman empire into the ten 
kingdoms, to weld these kingdoms again into one great 
empire. These have not succeeded and never will. 
“They shall not cleave one to another.” Examine these 
seven words closely, for they have proved stronger than 
all the legions of earth’s mightiest armies. 

Attempts to Unite the Nations of Europe 

In the eighth century Charlemagne made an attempt 
to do what God had said should not be done. He tried 
to bring the kingdoms of Europe under his dominion 
and unite them in a great Christian empire. But, just 
as God foretold, he failed. During the sixteenth century 
a similar attempt was made by Charles V, but he failed. 
During the latter part of the seventeenth and the first 
part of the eighteenth centuries Louis XIV tried to 
bring nearly all Europe under his dominion. But God 
had said more than twenty centuries before that “they 
shall not cleave one to another,” and Louis XIV failed. 

Perhaps the greatest, and what appeared for a time 
to be the most successful, attempt to bring all the divided 
parts of the ancient Roman empire under one rule, was 
made during the first part of the nineteenth century 
by Napoleon Bonaparte. But all the wisdom of this 
brilliant military genius, all his shrewdness and in¬ 
genuity, all his great knowledge of military tactics, 
and all the strength of his mighty legions, was not 
sufficient to break the power of seven short words of 


24 


OUR LORD'S RETURN 

THESE ALL FAILED IN TRYING TO UNITE THE TEN KINGDOMS 



Scripture. God 
“They shall not 
other,” and while 
it, yet it was 
leon was fighting 
the armies of 
the word of God, 
dream of world 
an end at the 
loo. God had 
Scripture cannot be broken.” “The 
shall stand forever.” Isa. 40 : 8. 


had declared, 
cleave one to an- 
he did not realize 
true that Napo- 
not merely against 
men, but against 
and his great 
empire came to 
battle of Water- 
spoken, and “ the 
word of our God 


Another Method — Intermarriage 

But the prophecy goes further than this, and indicates 
that when the use of force should fail to bring together 
these kingdoms into one great empire, other methods 
would be tried. It very definitely predicts that one of 
these methods would be intermarriage. The words of 
the prophecy are: 

“They shall mingle themselves with the seed of men; but they 
shall not cleave one to another.” Verse 43. 








THE COMING KINGDOM 


25 


This plan, too, has failed. But notice the fulfilment 
of this remarkable prediction, given nearly twenty-five 
hundred years ago. Permit me to direct attention to 
the intricate relationships existing between the reigning 
houses of Europe, at the beginning of the great war in 
1914. 

The Relationships of European Rulers 

The late Christian IX of Denmark had six children, 
three sons and three daughters. His eldest son suc¬ 
ceeded his father on the throne of Denmark as Frederick 
VIII. His eldest daughter married Edward, Prince of 
Wales, and became Queen Mother Alexandra of England. 
The second son, Prince William, was elected King of 
Greece, known as George V of Greece, and was assas¬ 
sinated during the late war between the Balkan states 
and Turkey. The second daughter married Czar Alex¬ 
ander of Russia, and became the Empress Dowager 
Dagmar of Russia. 

Thus the Empress Dowager Dagmar of Russia and 
Queen Mother Alexandra of England were sisters. 

Frederick VIII of Denmark had been succeeded on the 
throne by his eldest son, who was Christian X of 
Denmark. His second son, Prince Charles, was elected 
as king of Norway, where he reigned as Haakon VII. 
Thus the kings of Norway and Denmark were brothers. 

The son of the Empress Dowager Dagmar was the Czar 
Nicholas II of Russia; a son of Queen Mother Alexandra 
was George V of England; and a son of George V of 
Greece was Constantine X of Greece. Thus the king of 
England and the rulers of Russia and Greece were first 
cousins of the kings of Norway and Denmark, and also 
first cousins of each other, all five being grandsons of 
Christian IX of Denmark. 

Germany and England 

The oldest son of the late Queen Victoria of England 
became Edward VII of England. The oldest daughter 



VICTORIA (ENAV 

\ queen or Spain i 

— 6»A»K>OA«Brrel>ijg 
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ALEXANDRA. 

queen mother 

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1 ALIX, CZARINA ' 
of Russia-Grand- 
|)Au^*neRorO^EE>i WTTORtA; 


CZAR NICHOLAS II 

OFRU&SiA GRANDSON 

OP CHRISTIAN IX 


EMPEROR WILLIAM 

L/ op Germany-G ftAwofcO* 

■jf^. X . Qfr <5^en vict oria j| 


GEORGE V of England’ 

G»ANO»ot4 or CwwftTtAN IX : 
L an© Queen Victoria A 


QUEEN VICTORIA 

OF ENGLAND 


KING CHRISTIAN IX 

' OF DENMARK 


GRANDPARENTS 

Ql? the 

crowned HEAD3 OF EUROPE 


CONSTANTINE X 

. K1N6 0» GREECE 
| Grandson or , 
ft CHRISTIAN IX A 


QUEEN SOPHIA, 
or GREECE l 
. 6RAWOAUSfflTfto*J 
\ QurfN wctoaiA,#! 


CHRISTIAN X. King 
or Denmark— 6 «a«u>*oh 
. or CmhiGtian IX 


DAGMAR.EnmsasOow.wi# \ M f " 
i or RUSSIA — PAWTtra or \ ,$■ 4 
| Christian tx \*~ g i 

V h HAAKON 


QUEEN MAUDE or 
Norway— csANooA.u<mro 
in. or queen victoria. 


MOlfciiiiiiniiiii Mini 


“THEY SHALL MINGLE THEMSELVES WITH THE SEED OF MEN; BUT 
THEY SHALL NOT CLEAVE ONE TO ANOTHER.” 

26 















THE COMING KINGDOM 


27 


of Queen Victoria, Princess Victoria, married Emperor 
Frederick of Germany, and became the*mother of the 
Emperor William of Germany. 

Thus the king of England and emperor of Germany 
were first cousins, both being grandchildren of Queen 
Victoria. 

A sister of Emperor William of Germany, Princess 
Sophia, married Constantine X of Greece. Therefore 
the queen of Greece and the emperor of Germany 
were first cousins of the king of England. And, be it 
remembered, Constantine, the king of Greece, as well as 
his wife, was also a first cousin of the king of England. 

Czar Nicholas II married Princess Alix of Germany, 
a first cousin of both King George of England and Em¬ 
peror William of Germany, being also a grandchild of 
Queen Victoria. Haakon VII of Norway married Prin¬ 
cess Maude of England, a sister of King George of Eng¬ 
land. Hence the czarina of Russia, the queen of Norway, 
and the queen of Greece were all first cousins, being grand¬ 
children of Queen Victoria, while the queen of Norway 
and the king of England were brother and sister. The 
emperor of Germany and Sophia of Greece were also 
brother and sister. 

Nor is this all. The queen mother of Spain was an 
archduchess of Austria. And King Alfonso XIII married 
Princess Ena, another granddaughter of Queen Victoria, 
and therefore the king of England, the emperor of Ger¬ 
many, the queen of Greece, the czarina of Russia, 
the queen of Spain, and the queen of Norway were all 
grandchildren of the late Queen Victoria, being either 
first cousins of each other, or, as in two instances, brother 
and sister. 

God’s Word Still Stands 

Thus they were all related, but this intermarrying did 
not fulfil its purpose of bringing these nations into 
closer and more friendly relationships to each other. 
It did not serve to cement them together. The enmity 


28 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


between Germany and England was not lessened be¬ 
cause their kings were first cousins. And they were all 
just as ready to go to war with each other as they 
would be if their rulers were not all blood relatives. 
God’s word still stands, “They shall not cleave one to 
another.” 

“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a 
kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not 
be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all 
these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Forasmuch as thou 
sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, 
and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, 
and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall 
come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpre¬ 
tation thereof sure.” Verses 44, 45. 

The Everlasting Kingdom of Peace 

This is the most important part of this entire line of 
prophecy. “In the days of these kings,” or kingdoms. 
What kings?—The kingdoms arising on the ruins of 
Rome, the modern nations of Europe. In the days of 
the modern nations of Europe the God of heaven is to es¬ 
tablish his everlasting kingdom, the kingdom of Christ. 

There is no mistake here. Just as surely as Medo- 
Persia followed Babylon, as Greece followed Medo- 
Persia, as Rome followed Greece, and as the modern 
nations of Europe followed the empire of Rome, just so 
surely will this present world order be followed in the 
very near future by the kingdom of God, the great king¬ 
dom of peace which shall extend from one end of the 
earth to the other. 

It should be noticed that this kingdom is not to be 
established in this world by the world’s conversion. Such 
a doctrine is unknown in the Bible. The stone which 
smote the great image, and ground it to powder, repre¬ 
sents the kingdom of God. After pleading with all flesh, 
after sending his gospel of the coming kingdom into all 
the world as a witness to every nation, God will punish 
the inhabitants of the earth for the rejection of the gos- 


THE COMING KINGDOM 


29 


pel, bringing the existing order of the world to destruc¬ 
tion. Before this destruction, the people of God will 
be gathered out of the world by the preaching of the 
gospel. Every soul who makes a covenant with the Lord 
by sacrifice, every one who accepts Jesus Christ as his 
Saviour, will become a subject of the everlasting king¬ 
dom which is about to be set up on earth. Let the reader 
be admonished by these rapidly fulfilling prophecies and 
make his peace with the Lord, tha?t he may have an 
abundant entrance into that kingdom which is soon 
to come. 



“SURELY HE HATH BORNE OUR GRIEFS, AND CARRIED OUR SORROWS” 






HE WILL COME FOR HIS PEOPLE” 


CHAPTER FOUR 

THE PURPOSE OF HIS COMING 

£HE plan of salvation would be incomplete if it did not 
include the second coming of Christ. It is that glorious 
event which brings to full fruition all of the benefits and 
blessings of the gospel. 

At the first advent of Christ the seed of the kingdom 
was sown. The full harvest is to be gathered at the 
second advent. 

The purpose of the coming of Christ the second time 
is six-fold; namely, to raise the dead, to judge the world, 
to save his people, to destroy the wicked, to restore all 
things, and to reign forever and ever. 

He Will Come for His People 

When preparing his disciples for his departure, Jesus 
clearly stated the purpose of his second coming. He 
said: 

“I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place 
for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, 
there ye may be also” John 14:2, 3. 

30 




THE PURPOSE OF HIS COMING 


31 


It has been the purpose of God from the very begin¬ 
ning that his people should be with him throughout all 
eternity. Christ returned to heaven from this earth in 
order to make preparation for this plan to be carried out. 
He is even now preparing “a place” for his people. 
And he will come again to take them to himself, that 
where he is there they may be also. 

His people will be gathered together by his angels 
when he comes, for we read: 

“And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and 
they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of 
heaven to the other.” Matt. 24: 31. 

He Will Come to Raise the Dead 

At the time when Jesus comes, however, most of his 
people will be sleeping in death. And therefore one of 
the primary purposes of the coming of Christ is to awake 
the sleeping saints and give them an immortal existence. 
This is plainly stated thus: 

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, 
with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the 
dead in Christ shall rise first.” 1 Thess. 4:16. 

He Will Come to Translate the Living 

But some of the people of God at this time will be 
alive, not having tasted death. These will be united 
with those who have been raised from the dead, and both 
classes together will be caught up to be with Jesus. 

“Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together 
with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we 
ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thess. 4: 17. 

All Will Be Changed 

When this takes place both classes will be changed 
from their mortal, corruptible state and given a glorious 
immortality. 

“We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, 
in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall 


32 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be 
changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this 
mortal must put on immortality.” 1 Cor. 15:51-53. 

This will make them all like their divine Master, for 

“We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we 
shall see him as he is.” 1 John 3:2. 

He Will Come to Judge the World 

Another purpose for which Christ will come the second 
time will be to judge the world. It is impossible that 
this should be done before the end of all things, for God 
holds men responsible, not only for the commission of 
their own deeds, but also for the consequences resulting 
from their deeds. Thus Jeremiah declares that God’s 
“eyes are upon all the ways of*the sons of men: to give 
every one according to his ways, and according to the 
fruit of his doings.” Jer. 32:19. And, “I the Lord 
search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man 
according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his 
doings.” Jer. 17:10. 

Now, it is obvious that while the ways of a man may 
be manifest at his death, the “fruit of his doings” will not 
be manifest until the very end of time. Thus the streams 
of poison which had their sources in infidel pens may 
continue to flow through all time, while the Christian 
fortitude of the martyrs, and the faithful, self-sacrificing 
zeal and earnestness of true Christians, may be a fountain 
of perpetual blessing to the world until the close of human 
probation. Therefore the final reward or punishment 
must be delayed until the ultimate results of every good 
and evil action can be surveyed at a glance and the 
fruit of a man’s doings rightly estimated. 

In the second chapter of Daniel, commented on in 
the preceding chapter of this book, the stone which 
smote the image represented the kingdom of God which 
is to destroy the existing world order and take its place 


THE PURPOSE OF HIS COMING 


33 



in the earth, filling the entire earth and remaining for¬ 
ever. 

This destruction has not yet taken place. The feet 
of iron and clay still exist in the modern nations of Eu¬ 
rope. The stone has not yet struck. But the preceding 
kingdoms, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, 
have long since passed away. Those who composed the 
subjects of these kingdoms are dead. This prophecy, 

however, informs us 
that when the stone 
strikes, when the 
kingdom of God 
comes, then the iron, 
clay, brass, silver, 
and gold are to be 
broken to pieces to¬ 
gether, and carried 
away so that no place 
will be found for 
them. But those 
represented by the 
gold, silver, brass, 
iron, and clay are 
dead, and therefore 
they must be raised 
from the dead to re¬ 
ceive the punish¬ 
ment predicted in 
this prophecy and to be sent into eternal destruction as 
a punishment for their sins in a day long ago. 

To this agree the words of David, who says: 

“For he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall Judge 
the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.” Ps. 
96:13. 


THE STONE SMITING THE IMAGE 


Paul makes it very clear that the judgment of both 
the living and the dead will take place at the second 
coming of Christ. 







34 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, 
who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his 
kingdom.” 2 Tim. 4:1. 

It was at this time also that Paul expected to get his 
reward for faithfulness, for he says again: 

“Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which 
the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me 
only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” 2 Tim. 4:8. 

The Final Separation of Righteous and Wicked 

It is at the time of the second advent of Christ that 
the great and final separation between the righteous and 
the wicked takes place. 

“When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy 
angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and 
before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them 
one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.” 
Matt. 25: 31, 32. 

At this judgment every man will be rewarded in exact 
accordance with his works. Rewards and .punishments 
will be apportioned to the righteous and the wicked. 

“For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with 
his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.” 
Matt. 16: 27. 

He Will Come to Save His People 

The second coming of Christ is also for the purpose of 
bringing complete salvation to his people, salvation from 
death and the grave forever. Thus we read in the words 
of Paul: , 

“So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto 
them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin 
unto salvation.” Heb. 9: 28. 

Of this glorious time we read: 

“He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe 
away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take 
away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it. And it shall 
be said in that day,. Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and 
he will save us:.this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be 
glad and rejoice in his salvation,” Isa. 25:8, 9. 


THE PURPOSE OF HIS COMING 


35 


He Will Come to Destroy the Wicked 

The fourth purpose for which the Lord will come the 
second time will be to destroy the wicked, those who 
have rejected his mercy and his truth. 

“ When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty 
angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, 
and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Thess. 
1:7,8. 

Concerning this same punishment we read: 

“But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with 
equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with 
the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the 
wicked.” Isa. 11:4. 

John writes of this destruction of the wicked at the 
coming of Christ as follows: 

“And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time 
of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest 
give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them 
that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which 
destroy the earth.” Rev. 11:18. 

He Will Come to Restore all Things 

Another wonderful purpose of God in the second 
coming of Christ is the restoration of all things which 
have been lost through the introduction of sin into this 
world. At the beginning of the history of the world 
mankind was placed in the garden of Eden, and given 
the privilege of eating of the tree of life. It was God’s 
purpose for man that he should ever remain in this 
paradise and possess eternal life. This plan was thwarted 
fyy sin, but God has kept this purpose for man in mind 
through all the ages which have passed since then, and 
through Christ all things will be restored to those who 
accept the plan of salvation. This has been foretold by 
many of the prophets, and Peter speaks of it in this 
way: 

“And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto 
you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of 


36 


OUR LORD'S RETURN 


all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets 
since the world began.” Acts 3: 20, 21. 

A description of the restored earth, with the redeemed 
race upon it, will be found in the last two chapters of 
the Bible. It is the second coming of Christ which will 
prepare the way for the establishment of this new earth, 
where the people of God shall dwell throughout eternity. 

He Will Come to Reign Forever 

Jesus wilbcome as King of kings and Lord of lords to 
reign forever and ever. 

“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that 
sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he 
doth judge and make war. . . . And he hath on his vesture 

and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF 
LORDS.” Rev. 19:11-16. 

The kingdom over which he will rule will be an ever¬ 
lasting kingdom. This is stated in many passages. 

“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a 
kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: ... it shall stand 
forever.” Dan. 2:44. “And there was given him dominion, and 
glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should 
serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not 
pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” 
Dan. 7:14. “And the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion 
from henceforth, even for ever.” Mic. 4: 7. “Of his kingdom there 
shall be no end.” Luke 1: 33. 

He Will Come to Give the Kingdom to His People 

And of this kingdom the people of God shall be joint 
heirs with Christ, and the coming of Christ will assure to 
his people the kingdom which has been promised the 
faithful. 

“And the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the 
kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the 
saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, 
and all dominions shall serve and obey him.” Dan. 7: 27. 

“Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye 
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
foundation of the world.” Matt. 25:34. 


THE PURPOSE OF HIS COMING 


37 


“And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall 
reign on the earth.” Rev. 5:10. 

Surely with all these wonderful and glorious purposes 
to be worked out by the coming gf Christ we cannot 
afford to give up the precious doctrine of his coming. 
This is indeed a “ blessed hope.” As we contemplate 
the stupendous events of the near future, the events 
which cluster around the glorious appearing of Christ, 
there comes from our eager hearts the cry of John, “Even 
so, come, Lord Jesus.” 



THE APOSTLE JOHN, FROM A STEEL ENGRAVING 





CHRIST FORETELLING THE SIGNS OF HIS SECOND COMING 

CHAPTER FIVE 

OUR LORD’S OWN PROPHECY 

gEGINNING with the twenty-third chapter of Matthew 
is recorded what is evidently the last public address 
given by Jesus to the Jewish nation. In this address, 
which was delivered in the court of the temple at Jeru¬ 
salem, he strongly denounced the hypocrisy of the Jewish 
leaders. 

At the close of his address Christ said: 

“Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, 
and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of 
them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from 
city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed 
upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of 
Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and 
the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon 
this generation” Matt. 23: 34-36. 

The Jewish people possessed all the light and truth 
which God had revealed through all the centuries pre- 

38 



OUR LORD’S OWN PROPHECY 


39 


ceding their time, and in rejecting that light, as they did 
in rejecting the gospel, they made themselves equally 
guilty with their fathers in the shed blood of the patriarchs 
and prophets. And the punishment for this accumulated 
guilt was, according to these words of Christ, to be 
visited upon that generation. Attention is directed to 
the two expressions in this passage, “ these things,” and 
“this generation .” “These things” has reference to 
the punishment for all the righteous blood shed upon the 
earth, and there can be no dispute that “this generation” 
has reference to the generation living when Christ uttered 
these words. 

This is clearly a prediction that the destruction of the 
city of Jerusalem and the Jewish nation would come 
upon the very generation which heard and rejected the 
message of the gospel. And this was literally fulfilled. 

Two Questions 

After Jesus had left the temple on this occasion, and 
was sitting on the slope of Mount Olivet overlooking 
the buildings of the temple, “the disciples came unto 
him- privately,” and they asked him two questions. 
Just previously he had told them something additional 
regarding the destruction of the temple, saying, “Verily 
I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone 
upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” 

The two questions which the disciples asked the Master 
were these: 

“Tell us, when shall these things be? 

“And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the 
world? ” Matt. 24:3. 

Let it be noticed that they first asked for information 
as to when “these things,” which he had already said 
were coming upon that present generation, were to come. 
They first wanted to be enlightened regarding the im¬ 
pending destruction of the temple and the city. And 


✓ 



40 


THE ROMAN ARMIES TAKING JERUSALEM 

















OUR LORD’S OWN PROPHECY 


41 


after that they wanted to learn what sign they were to 
accept and recognize as a sign of Christ’s return to this 
earth and of the end of the world. 

Jesus Instructs the Disciples 

“And Jesus answered.” Matt. 24:4. 

It is claimed by some today that we can know nothing 
concerning the second coming of Christ, but it is obvious 
that we can know at least what the answer of Jesus was 
to these vitally important questions of his disciples. 
And in that answer is contained a great volume of in¬ 
formation and truth regarding this subject, truth which 
every Christian should be willing to accept without 
question because it came from the lips of the Master 
himself. 

Jesus then proceeded to answer the first question, 
giving the indications, one by one, of the approaching 
destruction of the city and temple, and finally he gave 
them the sign by which they were to know when to 
leave the city to escape its destruction. When they should 
see Jerusalem compassed with armies (Luke 21:20) 
they were to flee into the mountains. They looked for 
this sign, and by heeding it when it appeared, all of 
God’s people made good their escape from the doomed city. 
The Roman armies compassed the city and took it, and 
put its inhabitants to the sword, destroying the great 
temple, but the Christians, following the instruction of 
Jesus, were saved. 

The Second Question 

Having now answered the first question of the disciples 
concerning the time when “these things” would come 
upon “this generation,” Christ begins the answer to the 
second question, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, 
and of the end of the world?” Before considering this, 
however, let it be noticed that the predicted destruction 
of Jerusalem did take place upon the very generation 


42 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


which heard and rejected the message of the gospel, in 
which was contained a warning concerning this very 
destruction, and in which, also, was contained salvation 
for every soul which believed and accepted the message. 

The Great Tribulation 

In beginning his reply to the question regarding the 
signs of his second coming, Christ spoke first of a period 
of “ great tribulation.” 

“Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning 
of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days 
should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s 
sake those days shall be shortened.” Matt. 24: 21, 22. 

This sign was fulfilled in that great period of papal 
persecution against God’s faithful children, which, ac¬ 
cording to the prophecy of Dan. 7:25, was to continue 
for a time, times, and half a time, or twelve hundred and 
sixty years. 

This period of martyrdom and persecution began with 
the supremacy of the Roman Church in 538 a. d., and 
continued just twelve hundred and sixty years, until 
1798. In this latter year the pope was taken prisoner 
by General Berthier of France, and sent away into exile, 
where he died. A decree of religious liberty was read in 
Rome, and a Roman republic established. This marked 
the close of the period of papal persecution. 

The “days” of persecution, then, reached down to 
1798. But the Saviour said these days should be short¬ 
ened; that is, the persecution itself would be brought to 
an end before the days ran out, or before 1798. And, 
true to the Master’s word, before 1798 came, the effects 
of the Protestant Reformation began to be felt, and 
persecution had practically ceased by 1775. 

The Dark Day 

Here, .then, is a period of about twenty-three years, 
between 1775 and 1798, during which the persecution of 
Christians had been brought to an end. In this period, 


OUR LORD’S OWN PROPHECY 


43 


between these two dates, Christ now locates the next 
sign of his second coming. 

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be 
darkened, and the moon shall not give her light.” Matt. 24:29. 

Notice that the Saviour does not say this sign will 
take place after the days, but after the “ tribulation of 
those days.*” There is a difference between the days of 
tribulation, which reached to 1798, and the tribulation 
itself, which reached only to 1775. Mark, in recording 



HUSS LED TO THE STAKE 

this same instruction of the Master, makes the exact time 
for the occurrence of this sign a little clearer. He says: 

“ But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, 
and the moon shall not give her light.” Mark 13: 24. 

The time when this sign will occur, then, is “in those 
days”; that is, before 1798, but “after that tribulation,” 
or after 1775. 

Thus the occurrence of this sign, a remarkable darken¬ 
ing of the sun, a dark day, is limited to a period of about 
twenty-three years, between 1775 and 1798. And in 






44 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


that very period this prediction was exactly fulfilled. 
It took place on May 19, 1780. About ten o’clock on 
the morning of that day a darkness began to shut out 
the light of the sun. The chickens began to go to roost 
as if it were night, and the cows came in from the pastures. 
It was necessary to light the candles in the homes of the 
people in order to read common print. All felt that thi§ 
was a sign of the approaching end of the world. It came 
at the very time predicted, and was indeed a fulfilment 
of Matt. 24:29. 

“In some places persons could not see to read common print in the 
open air for several hours together. Birds sang their evening song, 
disappeared, and became silent; fowls went to roost; cattle sought 
the barn yard; and candles were lighted in the houses. The obscuration 
began about ten o’clock in the morning, and continued until the 
middle of the next night.”— Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary , edition 
1883 , page 1601^, in article , (( The Dark Day.” 

“The darkness of the following evening was probably as deep 
and dense as ever had been observed since the Almighty first gave 
birth to light; it wanted only palpability to render it as extraordinary 
as that which overspread the land of Egypt in the days of Moses. 
If every luminous body in the universe had been shrouded in im¬ 
penetrable shades, or struck out of existence, it was thought the dark¬ 
ness could not have been more complete. A sheet of white paper, 
held within a few inches of the eyes, was equally invisible with the 
blackest velvet.”— 11 Our First Century,” by R. M. Devens, page 9/^ 

The Falling of the Stars 

After the sign of the dark day there was to be another. 
Christ speaks of it as follows: 

“And the stars shall fall from heaven.” Matt. 24: 29. 

This sign was fulfilled in the wonderful meteoric shower 
of the morning of Nov. 13, 1833. On that day the most 
wonderful falling of stars that the world has ever witnessed 
took place, and fulfilled this verse. An eye-witness of 
this scene, a Mr. Clarkson, the agricultural editor of 
the Iowa State Register , after reading a statement that 
modern fireworks surpass even the glory of falling stars, 
wrote in his paper the following: 

“The writer of that sentence did not witness the glorious meteoric 
shower of November, 1833, when the display was so much superior 


OUR LORD’S OWN PROPHECY 


45 


H*\ls f 

I Jg » 




to any artistic 
display of fire- 
works that 
neither language 
nor any element 
in nature can 
furnish compari¬ 
sons. The com¬ 
parison of the 
sheet-iron thun¬ 
der of the thea¬ 
ters to the electric 
display of Provi¬ 
dence when the 
heavens are all 
on fire, and the 
earth trembles, 
would be toler¬ 
able. But the 
awful grandeur 
of the display on 
the night of the 
thirteenth of 
November, 1833, 
which made the 
stoutest heart 
stand in awe, 
and the most 
defiant infidel 
quake with fear, 
is never to be 
compared with 
the most bril¬ 
liant fireworks. 

Those who witnessed the meteoric shower named saw the greatest 
display that man ever will see until the day that Peter speaks of 
when the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements 
shall melt with fervent heat. The agricultural editor of the Register 
was out alone with a team and load of lumber all night on that 
never-to-be-forgotten night. And he cannot now consent to hear of 
human fireworks being superior to that most grand and sublime 
spectacle ever before or since beheld by man. Patent fireworks are 
no nearer this wonderful phenomenon than a lightning-bug is equal 
to the sun .”—Iowa State Register , July 12, 1889. 

Two other statements regarding this important event 
will be of interest. They are as follows: 


‘THE DARK DAY’ 



OUR LORD’S RETURN 


40 



“THE FALLING OF THE STARS” 

“At Niagara the exhibition was equally brilliant, and probably no 
spectacle so terribly grand and sublime was ever before beheld by 
man as that of the firmament descending in fiery torrents over the 
dark and roaring cataract.”— The American Encyclopedia, edition 
1881 , article 11 Meteor. ’ ’ 

“The extent of the shower of 1833 was such as to cover no incon¬ 
siderable part of the earth’s surface, from the middle of the Atlantic 
on the east to the Pacific on the west; and from the northern coast 
of South America to undefined regions among the British possessions 
on the north, the exhibition was visible, and everywhere presented 
nearly the same appearance.”— From a statement hy the celebrated 
astronomer and meteorologist, Professor Olmstead, of Yale College. 

His Coming Is Even at the Door 

Thus, as at the first coming of Christ God hung out 
a star as a sign of his coming, so before his second coming 
he has hung these signs in the heavens that all may be 
convinced that his coming is near at hand. 

“And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and 
then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the 
Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great 
glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, 





OUR LORD’S OWN PROPHECY 47 


and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one 
end of heaven to the other.” Matt. 24: 30, 31. 

From these words it is clear that in this line of prophecy 
the very next event after the falling of the stars in 1833 
is the actual appearance of Jesus in the clouds of heaven. 
And then the Lord said: 

“When ye shall see all these things, know that he (margin) is near, 
even at the doors.” Matt. 24:33. 

When we see these signs,— the great tribulation, the 
dark day, and the falling of the stars — we may rest 
assured that Christ is very near at hand. 



‘WHERE IS HE THAT IS BORN KING 
OF THE JEWS? FOR WE HAVE 
SEEN HIS STAR” 


WHAT ABOUT THE SECOND COMING 
OF CHRIST? FOR WE HAVE SEEN 
HIS SIGNS 











4S 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


In the thirty-fourth verse Christ locates his coming 
in a certain generation. In the next chapter of this 
book we shall consider what generation it is in which 
the second coming of Christ will take place. 

Warnings against False Christs 

Before closing this chapter it is important to direct 
special attention to the warnings given in this discourse 
of the Saviour against false Christs and false prophets. 
Satan has attempted to pervert even the truth of the 
second coming of Christ. He has led men to believe 
he will not come literally, and that the prophecies of 
the Bible regarding his coming are sufficiently fulfilled 
at the death of each person. Others he has deceived 
by leading them to believe that Christ’s coming will be 
secret, that he will take one here and one there, and that 
it will be a very quiet proceeding altogether. Others he 
has led to believe that Christ has already come. 

“Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; 
believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, 
and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were 
possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you 
before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold he is in the 
desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe 
it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even 
unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matt. 
24: 23-27. 

This is a warning of vital importance. Christ is com¬ 
ing literally, visibly, and personally, and those who believe 
these facts will not be deceived by the delusions of the 
present day. There will be those who teach that Christ 
has come. This has been taught by the late Charles T. 
Russell, head of the Millennial Dawn movement, com¬ 
monly called Russellism. He taught, and his followers 
believe, that Christ came in 1874. But the Lord himself 
said, “If any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ; 
. . . believe it not.” Christ’s coming will be visi¬ 

ble and glorious, “as the lightning.” 


OUR LORD’S OWN PROPHECY 


49 


There will be some who teach that he has come “in 
the secret chambers.” This undoubtedly points to the 
deceptions of Spiritualism, but it also covers the teaching 
that Christ’s second coming takes place at death. Even 
some learned ministers teach this false doctrine. Christ’s 
second coming is a public event, not a secret coming at 
death. Wp have Christ’s warning concerning this de¬ 
lusion, “Believe it not.” Let us heed the warning. 



4 


A SEANCE AT THE TIME OF ANCIENT SPIRITUALISM 





Copyright by Wm. H, Rau 

“IN SUCH AN HOUR AS YE THINK NOT THE SON OF MAN COMETH” 


CHAPTER SIX 

THE TIME OF HIS COMING 

£HERE has been much futile speculation regarding the 
time of the second coming of Christ. So many people 
have set the time for this event to take place, and the 
time set has passed by so many times, that this great 
event itself has been discredited even in the min ds of 
those who believe the Bible. 

The sensational predictions which have been made by 
fanatical enthusiasts on this subject have served only 
to arouse the scorn of the world. The result has been 
that whenever it is proposed to study the subject of the 
second coming of Christ, the suggestion has been received 
with open contempt. The opinion prevails quite largely 
that it is useless to study the subject of the nearness 
50 





THE TIME OF HIS COMING 


51 


of the coming of Christ, and when the statement is made 
that we are now living in a time when his immediate 
coming may be expected, it is usually received with an 
incredulous and pitying smile. 

The prevailing view of this subject seems to be ex¬ 
pressed in the statement so often heard, “We can know 
nothing of the time of his coming; he may come today 
and he may come in a thousand years; we know nothing 
at all about it.” 

“The Time of the End” 

It is most deplorable that so much fanaticism has 
surrounded the preaching of this subject in the past that 
this great doctrine has come to be looked upon with 
reproach. But this ought not to cause those who are 
seeking for the truth to overlook the fact that the Bible 
has a great deal to say about “the time of the end,” 
“the last days,” and “the days of the Son of man,” 
nor the additional fact that the Bible so fully describes 
the character of those days just preceding the coming 
of Christ that only those who are willingly ignorant will 
fail to recognize them. 

Those who diligently seek for the truth of this subject 
may know something of the time of the coming of Christ. 
They may know when “he is near, even at the doors.” 
They cannot know the day and the hour, for 

“Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of 
heaven, but my Father only.” Matt. 24:36. 

On the Mount of Olives the disciples asked the Saviour, 
“What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end 
of the world.” In his reply to this question the Master 
described in detail the great period of persecution during 
the Dark Ages, the dark day of May 19, 1780, and the 
falling of the stars on Nov. 13, 1833, and he then said: 

“When ye shall see all these things, know that he is near, even at 
the doors.” Matt. 24:33. 


52 


OUR LORD'S RETURN 


From this verse it is evident that it is fully possible 
for all who are interested in this subject to know at 
least when his coming is “even at the doors.” This may 
be known by the signs which he has given — the great 
tribulation, the dark day, and the falling of the stars. 
When these things are seen, then we may rest assured 
that his coming is “even at the doors.” When a person 
is at our door he is so near that one further step will 
bring him inside. 

In a Certain Generation 

To make this, the time of his coming, still more definite, 
Christ said: 

“Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all 
these things be fulfilled.” Matt. 24:34. 

This verse locates the coming of Christ in a certain 
generation. Just as the destruction of Jerusalem was to 
come upon a certain generation, so the coming of Christ 
is here predicted to take place in a certain generation. 
It will be remembered that when Christ said the guilt 
and punishment for all the righteous blood shed upon 
the earth was tp be visited upon the Jews, he used these 
words: 

“Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this gen¬ 
eration.” Matt. 23:36. 

Thus in both these chapters, the twenty-third and 
the twenty-fourth of Matthew, certain things are pre¬ 
dicted to take place in certain generations. The first 
is certainly a prediction that the destruction of Jerusalem 
and the Jewish nation would come upon the very genera¬ 
tion which heard and rejected the message of the gospel. 
And this prediction was literally fulfilled. The destruc¬ 
tion of the city and temple took place in A. d. 70, about 
thirty-nine years after Christ had made the prediction 
regarding “this generation.” 41 


THE TIME OF HIS COMING 


53 



CITY SCENE “IN THIS PRESENT GENERATION” 

In This Present Generation 

The second use of the words “this generation” has 
reference to an entirely different generation than the 
one which saw the destruction of Jerusalem. The gen- 









54 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


eration referred to in Matt. 24:34 is definitely located 
in the preceding verse as the generation which “ shall 
see all these things,” that is, the tribulation, the dark 
day, and the falling of the stars. It does not mean to 
see them literally, necessarily, not all of them, certainly, 
for there is no one now living who saw the period of 
persecution, and it is doubtful if there are any who saw 
the dark day. The generation meant is the one that 
shall see these things as signs of the coming of Christ. 
Without doubt there will be some living when the Lord 
comes who saw the falling of the stars in 1833. The 
teaching of this passage is clearly that when the people 
of this earth hear a great message of the coming of the 
Lord, a message which will set before them these signs 
as signs of the coming of Christ, the generation hearing 
that message will not pass away until the Saviour comes. 
Just as it was the generation which heard the preaching 
of John and of Christ and his disciples, and which re¬ 
jected that message, upon which the destruction of Jeru¬ 
salem came as a punishment for that rejection, so in these 
last days* it will be the generation which hears the message 
of the coming of Christ with all its allied truths, and 
rejects that message, upon which the destruction of the 
last days will come. 

That message of the Lord’s coming, containing the 
signs referred to, is even now being preached in prac¬ 
tically all the world. This generation, the present gen¬ 
eration, is the one which is hearing the message of the 
coming of Christ. 

This brings us face to face with the most solemn truth 
of all our lives. And that truth is this: The present genera¬ 
tion is the one which is destined to see the second coming 
of Christ. 

There is no mistake here. Just as surely as the great 
period of tribulation of the church came to pass, just 
as surely as this period was followed by the occurrence 
of the dark day in 1780, just as surely as this in turn 


THE TIME OF HIS COMING 


55 


was followed by the falling of the stars in 1833, just so 
surely will the coming of Christ take place in the present 
generation. 

This is the clear teaching of the Word of God, and the 
Scripture cannot be broken. How important it is, then, 
that all who read these words make at once that prepa¬ 
ration of heart and life which is necessary in order to 
meet the Lord in peace. 



“VERILY, I SAY UNTO YOU ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE FULFILLED” 






‘‘THE CHARIOTS . . . SHALL SEEM LIKE TORCHES, THEY SHALL RUN 
LIKE THE LIGHTNINGS.” NAHUM 2:4. 


CHAPTER SEVEN 

THE SIGNS OF HIS COMING 

ADDITION to the signs mentioned by the Saviour 

himself in his discourse on Mount Olivet, there are 
other signs foretold in the Scriptures which we must 
now study, and the study of which will make much clearer 
the truth that we are now living in the generation which 
will witness the coming of Christ. 

About twenty-five hundred years ago God spoke 
through the prophet Daniel as follows: 

“But thou, 0 Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even 
to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge 
shall be increased. ,, Dan. 12:4. 

According to this instruction, the book of Daniel was 
shut up and sealed. It was to remain sealed to the time 
of the end; not to the end itself, but “even to the time 
of the end.” This refers to a short period just before 
the end. In this period, just before the second coming 
56 







THE SIGNS OF HIS COMING 


57 


of Christ, many are to “run to and fro,” and a remarkable 
increase in knowledge is to take place. 

Unparalleled Running To and Fro 

This increase of knowledge will be primarily with 
reference to that which had hitherto been sealed up; 
that is, the prophecy of the book of Daniel. This is 
not so clearly expressed in the English translation, but 
is made very plain in other versions. For example, this 
text in the German Bible reads: 

“And thou, Daniel, hide these words and seal this writing until 
the last time: then shall many comprehend it and find great under¬ 
standing.’' 

And the French version reads: 

“But thou, Daniel, close these words and seal the book until the 
time appointed; at which they shall run through it, and of which 
the knowledge shall be increased.” 

The present widespread interest in the prophecies of 
Daniel, and the increasing light that has illuminated the 
minds of prayerful students of this book, are characteristic 
of the present generation, and constitute a sign of the end. 
Many Bible scholars, in various parts of the world, acting 
independently of each other, have arrived at substantially 
the same interpretation of these heretofore sealed writings. 

And that this great light obtained from the unsealing 
of this book might go swiftly to all the world, there has 
also been a wonderful increase of scientific knowledge, 
and of running to and fro by means of swift travel and 
communication which scientific discovery has provided 
in our day. 

Let the reader go to any great railroad passenger 
terminal and note the unparalleled running to £tnd fro. 
Tens and hundreds of thousands of people are constantly 
coming and going. A steady stream comes in from the 
arriving trains, and a steady stream goes out on the 
departing trains. And there seems to be no cessation 
of this great stream of travel day or night. A hundred 


58 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


years ago people did not travel in this wholesale fashion. 
Their interests then did not take them away from home, 
and even though they desired to travel, they did not 
then possess the means for rapid transportation which 
we now have. And so they remained at home. But 
home is now the last place people think of staying if 
they can reach some other place. The trolleys seem 
always to be crowded, the trains are always full, and the 
great steamships are burdened with their loads of hu¬ 
manity. Surely this is the day of running “to and fro/’ 
pointed to in the Scripture as the “time of the end.” 

Remarkable Increase in Knowledge 

And in this our day knowledge has been most wonder¬ 
fully increased. Knowledge of the Scriptures has been 
increased. We have many agencies now for instruction 
in the truths of the Bible which were not known a little 
more than a century ago. 

“The London Religious Tract Society was organized in 1799, the 
British and Foreign Bible Society in 1804, the American Bible Society 
in 1816, and the American Tract Society in 1825. The Bible has 
now been translated into about four hundred and fifty languages 
and dialects, and sent to every part of the globe. Before that time 
access to the Bible was confined to comparatively few. Now the 
humblest person may possess it, and is as free to read and study 
it as is the most exalted in the land. A little more than one hundred 
years ago there was not a Sunday school in the world, the first one 
l3eing organized by Robert Raikes, at Gloucester, England, in 1784. 
Now there are more than 285,000 such schools, with over 28,000,000 
officers, teachers, and pupils .”—“Bible Readings for the Home Circle ,” 
pages 237, 238. 

And knowledge in every other line of human endeavor 
has signally marked the past century. Without parallel 
in the history of the world has been the increase of know¬ 
ledge in scientific, financial, moral, intellectual, mechanic¬ 
al, and physical, as well as religious, lines, during the 
past century. Were George Washington and his col¬ 
leagues of a century and a quarter ago to be raised from 
their graves and see the steamships, steam and electric 


THE SIGNS OF HIS COMING 


59 


railways, telegraphs, telephones, photographs, sewing- 
machines, submarines, linotype and monotype machines, 
motion pictures, aeroplanes, printing presses, the wireless 
telegraph, and the wonders of anaesthetics and X-rays, 
they would experience about the same degree of aston¬ 
ishment as would those who lived forty centuries ago. 
Within the past century the human race seems to have 
been shocked out of a lethargy which deadened its 
inventive faculties for thousands of years. All the 
faculties of the human mind have been sharpened to an 
amazing degree during the last hundred years. Until a 
century and a half ago men used about the same means 
of locomotion as Abraham did when he went from Ur 
of the Chaldees into the land of promise. They rode 
upon some beast of burden or were drawn in some crude, 
primitive cart. 

Unparalleled Activity of Invention 

But suddenly there came a change. Human genius 
awoke and began to produce time- and labor-saving 
devices in great numbers. Never before has there been 
an era that can compare with it. 

“The great facts of the nineteenth century stand out so conspicu¬ 
ously above the achievements of any preceding century that it would 
be affectation of humility not to recognize and speak of them .”—Union 
Handbook, 1870. 

“Never was there such activity of invention within the history of 
mankind as at the present day .”—Phrenological Journal, April, 1871. 

“More has been done, richer and more prolific discoveries have 
been made, grander achievements have been realized, in the course 
of the fifty years of our lifetime than in all the previous lifetime of 
the race .”—London Spectator . 

Consider some of the inventions which have come into 
existence during the last century and a quarter, and which 
have produced greater advancement in all lines of human 
enterprise and more progress in all that tends to human 
comfort, the speedy transaction of business among men, 
and the rapid transmission of intelligence than all that 
has been accomplished heretofore in the history of the 
world. 



A Typesetting 


Machine 


A Newspaper Printing Press 


r«f.si 


WjL?V.***Y 

W**¥**-S 

■ 

f ptm** % 

I 




m v 4 x\ 

In a 'v 
Wireless ? 
Receiving ^ 


Modern Photography: 

^ * , C, 


foLAft Mfq»4^K 


■ed Auto. 


A Merchant Submarine 


tfthgpnaiioria i Film 5ervice/ 


A Wireless Telegraph Tower 


60 


SOME OF THE LATEST INVENTIONS 



































A*5ubmarine' Chaser’ 


A Subtriarme 
Attaching a 
Passemfei*.. 
Steam Sinp 


An Air Craft Attack 


A Naval Ba; 


Anti-Air Craft 
Cxun. 


A"Tank' 


LATEST INVENTIONS FOR WAR PURPOSES 


61 




































62 OUR LORD'S RETURN 

The first steamboat was operated in 1807, the first 
steam printing-press in 1811, railroad cars in 1825, the 
reaper and mower in 1833 (the year in which the stars 
fell), the submarine cable in 1851, the automatic air¬ 
brake in 1872, electric railways in 1879, and the steam 
turbine in 1888. Electrotyping was first used in 1837, 
chloroform as an anaesthetic in 1847, and radium in 1902. 
The electric telegraph was invented in 1837, the camera 
in 1839, the sewing-machine in 1846, the typewriter in 
1868, the telephone in 1876, the phonograph in 1877, 
the modern seismograph in 1880, the linotype in 1885, 
the wireless telegraph in 1895, the moving picture machine 
in the same year, the monotype in 1896, and the first 
successful aeroplane in 1903. 

Just a few years ago automobiles, aeroplanes, and 
submarines were unknown. Automobiles are as common 
today as buggies were twenty-five years ago, and regular 
passenger-carrying aeroplanes are now being built which 
will carry passengers faster than the fastest railroad 
train. On July 9, 1916, the first merchant submarine 
to cross the Atlantic, a vessel carrying seven hundred 
fifty tons of freight, landed at Baltimore after running 
a blockade of enemy cruisers. 

There can be no question that we have reached 
the day pointed to by Daniel as “the time of the end.” 
We have truly reached the age of the increase of know¬ 
ledge. On every hand there are indications that the 
coming of the Lord draweth nigh. 

A World=wide Proclamation 

Another striking sign of the second coming of Christ 
is that contained in the following words: 

“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world 
for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matt. 
24:14. 

According to this passage that which is to be preached 
in all the world is “this gospel of the kingdom.” Be- 


THE SIGNS OF HIS COMING 


63 



A WORLD-WIDE MESSAGE 









64 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


fore the second coming of Christ there is to sound a world¬ 
wide proclamation which will reach every nation, and 
that which is to be proclaimed to every nation is “this 
gospel of the kingdom.” 

The kingdom is that kingdom which is to be estab¬ 
lished at the close of this earth’s history by the coming 
of “the King of kings and Lord of lords.” It is that 
kingdom represented in the prophecy of the great image 
of Daniel 2 by the stone which smote the image on its 
feet and broke it to pieces, and then took its place and 
filled the whole earth. It is that kingdom which is 
spoken of in Daniel 7:27: 

“And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the king¬ 
dom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the 
saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, 
and all dominions shall serve and obey him. ,, 

The gospel to be preached in all the world in these 
last days, and which will be proclaimed to every nation 
as a witness, is concerning the coming of this great king¬ 
dom of God. 

Therefore the “gospel of the kingdom” is the teach¬ 
ing of the coming of the* kingdom of Christ. This mes¬ 
sage, the message of the coming of Christ and his king¬ 
dom, is to be preached in all the world, and when it is 
preached in all the world, then the end shall come, the 
end of the world as it is now constituted, and then will 
be set up the everlasting kingdom of Christ. 

The most important sign, then, of the nearness of the 
coming of Christ, and the nearness of the end of all 
things earthly, is the extent to which this message of 
the coming kingdom has covered the earth. 

The verse does not declare, as many people have been 
led to believe, that the preaching of this gospel of the 
kingdom will convert the whole world. It is to be 
preached “as a witness.” Its preaching will not result 
in world conversion, for the world will not accept it. 


65 


THE SIGNS OF HIS COMING 

Special Truths for Special Times 

At every time of crisis in the work of God among men, 
the Lord has sent to the earth a message of truth which 
would fit the very conditions in view of which it was 
sent. These special messages have contained the truths 
of the gospel which have been revealed up to that time, 
and in addition to this they have proclaimed certain 
truths which were due at the time they were given, and 
which pointed out the duty of the people at that par¬ 
ticular time. 

At the time of the destruction of this earth by a flood 
God sent a message in which there was salvation from 
the impending destruction for every soul who believed 
it and acted upon it. At the time of the destruction of 
Sodom and Gomorrah God sent a .message to those 
doomed cities, which contained salvation for every per¬ 
son who believed and obeyed it. At the time of the 
destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, God gave a message 
which saved all who believed and obeyed it. Thus 
these messages of truth have always had in them the 
salvation of those who obeyed them. 

Before the destruction of the earth in the fires of the 
last day, and before the second coming of Christ, which 
will usher in that destruction, God will send a message 
of the coming end and his coming kingdom, in which 
will be wrapped up the salvation of the people of this 
earth. This message will be preached over all the earth, 
and it will be the last message of the gospel ever to be 
given to this world, and when it is completed, then 
Christ will come. 

Hence it is plain that when this proclamation of the 
coming of Christ has been taken to all the earth, then, 
according to the prophecy of Matthew 24:14, we may 
expect the end to come. It becomes, therefore, a sub¬ 
ject of the deepest interest to the student of the pro¬ 
phetic Word to learn how extensively this message of 
the second coming of Christ, the message of the coming 


66 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


kingdom, has been preached to all the world. Where 
has it gone? In how many nations is it now being 
preached? These are questions of vital import to every 
Christian who is looking for his Lord to come. 

In accordance with this prophecy we are led to expect 
the appearance of a movement among men which will 
attempt to deliver to the world the message of the second 
coming of Christ. Before the first coming of Christ 
John the Baptist delivered to the Jewish nation the mes¬ 
sage of his coming. That message was based on the 
prophecies of the Bible, and was designed to “make ready 
a people prepared for the Lord.” Luke 1:17. 

So before the second coming of Christ another mes¬ 
sage will be delivered to all the world warning the people 
of the coming of Christ. This message will also be based 
upon the prophecies of the Bible, and its acceptance will 
make ready a people prepared for the Lord. 

Now Being Preached 

Just such a movement, proclaiming just such a mes¬ 
sage, is now in actual operation in the world. It is being 
preached in every state in the United States, in eveiy 
province of Canada, in Alaska, in Mexico, in the Central 
American States, in the Canal Zone, and throughout the 
length and breadth of South America it is being heralded 
by scores of missionaries and colporteurs. And the West 
Indies, as well as the Bahamas and the Bermudas, are 
also hearing it. 

It has leaped across the seas and entered every country 
in Europe. Thousands of men and women have con¬ 
secrated their lives to its proclamation, and have gone 
to the ends*of the earth to preach it. In Russia and Si¬ 
beria its voice is heard. Throughout the far reaches of 
Asia it is sounding forth its warning. It has penetrated 
to the South Sea Islands, and the East Indies. Mis¬ 
sionaries preaching its solemn truths have entered China, 
Japan, and Korea by scores and hundreds. Many are 


THE SIGNS OF HIS COMING 


67 



“MISSIONARIES PREACHING ITS SOLEMN TRUTHS HAVE ENTERED CHINA, 
JAPAN, AND KOREA” 

preaching it in Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania. 
Africa, the great listening ear of the world, has heard 
from Egypt to the Cape the message of his coming. 

And so over all the earth the message of the coming 
kingdom is being preached by faithful messengers. It 
has encircled the earth. It is being preached today in 
nearly every country on the globe. The exceptions are 
few, and the remaining countries will soon be entered. 









68 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


And the Bible declares that “this gospel of the king¬ 
dom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto 
all nations, and then shall the end come.” 

The end is near at hand. The message of the coming 
of Christ is reaching out over all the earth. When it 
has completed its work, and the world is warned of the 
coming of the king, “then shall the end come.” 

In the Religious World 

Let us turn for a moment and look at the condition 
which will prevail in the religious world at the time 
when Christ will come the second time, as it is predicted 
in the Word of truth. 

“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, 
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without 
natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, 
despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers 
of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but 
denying the power thereof.” 2 Tim. 3:1-5. 

This is God's photograph of the conditions prevailing 
in the last days. Let the reader say whether it is a good 
likeness. “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your 

ears.” 

Love of Self 

“Lovers of their own selves, covetous.” We have 
already commented upon the lust for gold, the greed of 
the rich. Men today are covetous. This age is marked 
with that covetousness which is idolatry, and this is 
one of the signs of the times. 

Boasting 

“Boasters.” Wherever one goes today he finds a 
spirit of self-praise, a spirit of boasting. Men boast of 
their skill, their talents, their strength, their power, 
their prowess, even of their criminal excesses, the hearts 
they have broken, and the virtue they have despoiled. 


THE SIGNS OF HIS COMING 


69 


They are willing to give alms only if they can do so 
amid a flourish of trumpets. 

Pride 

“Proud.” Pride of every kind is prevalent today. 
There is national pride, political pride, religious pride, 
social pride. There is pride in dress, in which honor, 
reputation, life, and health are sacrificed to fashions 
adopted by the Paris houses of prostitution. In no 
previous age has Christendom been so devoted to pride 
and luxury. 

Blasphemy 

“Blasphemers.” This word comes from the Greek 
word blasphemeo, signifying “to speak evil of, to slander, 
to defame, to revile.” In this sense blasphemy surrounds 
us today on every side. We hear it in the streets, in the 
homes, in the stores, in the factories, in the banks, in 
the cars, in the parlors, on the sea, on the land, and in 
the air. This is an age noted for its evil speaking and 
blasphemy. 

Disobedience 

“Disobedient to parents.” Obedient children today 
are rare. There is a breaking away from parental re¬ 
strictions, a disregard for all parental authority, an 
open disobedience to parental will. This condition 
especially marks this age, and in this one respect there 
has been a vast change within the last half century. 
The children of our times are old in sin, knowing more 
iniquity at the age of fifteen than their parents did at 
thirty. 

Ingratitude 

“Unthankful.” This is an age of ingratitude. Men 
fail to thank God for his mercy, his love, and the blessings 
he sends upon all. Children fail to honor their parents 
or give any return for their love. Men who may receive 
a favor today will return evil for good tomorrow. Trusts 


70 


OUR LORD'S RETURN 


are betrayed, secrets disclosed, and confidences violated 
by pretended friends. 

Unholy 

“Unholy.” This is an age of religion, but there is 
very little genuine religion, very little holiness. There 
is a great deal of outward show, displayed in magnificent 
church buildings, stained glass windows, mitered priests, 
lordly clergy, gorgeous furnishings, pompous rituals, 
stately ceremonies, eloquent preachers, costly organs, 
highly paid singers, extravagant music, and much pomp 
and pageantry; but there is very little holiness. Very few 
of the people of God possess the full powers of undefiled 
manhood and womanhood. Very few are entirely free 
from the influence of debasing habits, lusts, and appetites. 
It was God’s purpose that the church should overcome 
the world, but today the world is overcoming the 
church. 

Without Natural Affection 

“Without natural affection.” This scripture is ful¬ 
filled today. Take the testimony of the abortionist who 
grows rich in his hellish work; take the testimony of the 
venders of poisons sold to pervert the processes of nature; 
and take the testimony of the victims of these devilish 
practises. Then read of the finding of corpses of mur¬ 
dered innocents in the sewers, the reservoirs, and other 
hidden places; read the records of divorce cases, the de¬ 
sertions, or even the killing, of aged parents by selfish 
children, and then judge if this is not an age “without 
natural affection.” 

Truce=Breaking 

“Truce-breakers.” This is an age when very little 
dependence can be placed in the pledged word of men. 
Lawsuits over broken contracts clog our legal machinery. 
Treaties between nations become mere “scraps of paper” 


THE SIGNS OF HIS COMING 


71 



“THERE IS A GREAT DEAL OF DISPLAY IN MAGNIFICENT CHURCH 

BUILDINGS” 

















72 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


when they stand in the way of unholy ambitions. Some 
men cannot be believed on oath. This is an age of truce¬ 
breaking. 

False Accusation 

“ False accusers.’’ This is a characteristic of the present 
age. The spirit of slander, calumny, detraction, and false 
accusation is abroad in the land, and it seems uncontrol¬ 
lable. Falsehoods run through the earth, multiplied a 
thousand times by the press. In political campaign 
there is too much of misrepresentation, falsehood, and 
slander. 

Moral Corruption 

“ Incontinent.” This is an age of moral corruption. 
Adultery is common; licentiousness is prevalent; illicit 
love fills the newspapers with tales of “affinities,” “soul 
mates,” and “passional attraction;” divorce is increas¬ 
ing at an alarming rate, one in every ten marriages in 
America today ending in the divorce court. This is the 
result of the whole course of fashionable life today, of 
the immoral fashions in dress, the intemperate habits, 
and the highly-seasoned foods, all of which lead to un¬ 
bridled lust. 

Unrelenting Hate 

“Fierce.” This is fulfilled in the calamities which 
nations inflict on each other in their conflicts. Should 
a visitor from another planet visit the world’s battle¬ 
fields and behold the fire of the great guns, see the man¬ 
gled and bloody limbs of dead and dying, and witness 
the pain, misery, and destruction which men deal out 
to each other, he would think he had lost his way and 
had landed in hell instead of this earth. Today there 
is a spirit of unforgiving, unalterable, unrelenting hate 
between certain nations of men. 

Hatred of Goodness 

“Despisers of those that are good.” It has been 
characteristic of all times that the evil hate the good, 


THE SIGNS OF HIS COMING 


73 



WHEN TREATIES BECOME MERE “SCRAPS OF PAPER” 









74 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


but hatred of goodness and the good is a special char¬ 
acteristic of the present age. This same chapter declares 
that “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer 
persecution. But' evil men and seducers shall wax worse 
and worse/’ and as evil men have become worse and 
more numerous, so has hatred of the good increased. 
Today, as in all previous times, the good suffer perse¬ 
cution. Those who will not serve God hate and dislike 
those who do. There are many today who reverence 
the holy men of old, but for those who live the same 
sort of lives now they have nothing but contempt and 
hatred. There are Christians today who cannot bind 
their consciences by forms and ceremonies and laws 
which God never made or authorized, and such men 
become thereby outcasts and objects of reproach. There 
are those who will not give their souls into the keeping 
of some pope or bishop or preacher, but who believe 
that they must live up to the light God gives them, 
knowing that they must give an account of themselves 
individually to God, and because of this they become a 
gazing-stock, outcasts from the crowd which follows the 
way of the majority. And everything that religious 
intolerance can do to oppose them, and make their lives 
miserable, and fence them away from all fellowship 
and friendship, is done with zeal. 

Treason 

“Traitors.” This is a day when men who can be 
trusted under all circumstances are very few. Trusts 
are accepted, only to be betrayed. The office-boy taps 
his employer’s cash drawer; the trusted cashier absconds 
with thousands of dollars; the conductor lays aside a 
little for himself; the bank, president steals by the million; 
and those in charge of inheritances of widows and orphans 
take the largest share for themselves. Office-holders 
betray their trusts; friends cannot be trusted; traitors 
are on every hand. 


THE SIGNS OF HIS COMING 


75 


t Headstrong Recklessness 

“Heady.” This is an age characterized by headstrong, 
reckless dispositions. Its spirit is that of speed and 
haste, for when you do not run with the crowd you get 
run over. A headlong, feverish rashness prevails among 
men everywhere. Patience is a virtue long since dis¬ 
carded. Caution, prudence, and wisdom are obsolete 
virtues; everything must go through with a rush. “The 
wicked are like the troubled sea that casteth up mire 
and dirt.” Great questions upon which the destiny of 
nations may hang are settled too often by wild tumults 
of popular passion. 


Haughtiness 

“High-minded.” Men are haughty today, and self- 
sufficient. They are wiser in their own eyes than “seven 
men who can render a reason.” Youths just out of 
school suddenly make the astonishing discovery that 
they know more than their elders. No other comment 
is needed on this expression than to watch a group of 
them, surrounded by clouds of cigarette smoke, settling 
the affairs of the universe with overweening conceit, 
vain-glorious, puffed up, given to criticism of those in 
high places. This spirit of high-mindedness also per¬ 
meates professed Christian people. Many will not ac¬ 
cept the authority of God and the Bible. They place 
their own opinions above the plain Word of God. No 
matter how clearly God may speak to them from his 
Word, they submit only to that degree to which the 
divine requirement may harmonize with their desires 
and opinions. 

Love of Pleasure 

“Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.” This 
is an age of amusement and pleasure of every description. 
Even the churches cannot run without periodical picnics, 
frolics, and shows. Simple pleasures are no longer suf- 


76 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


ficient to meet the requirements of this age of speed. 
There must be something wild, unnatural, exciting, 
thrilling. , The motion picture craze has swept all classes 
from their moorings, and is educating the young in crime 
and conjugal infidelity. Feasting and folly prevail 
everywhere, among both high and low. National peril, 
appalling disasters by land and sea, a world cataclysm 
of war, and even close personal afflictions, are not sufficient 
to restrain the wild orgy of exciting pleasures. Mirth 
and madness rule many minds. There are many today 
who, like Nero, would fiddle while Rome burned. Pleasure 
rules the age. 

Formalism and Hypocrisy 

“ Having a form of godliness, but denying the power 
thereof.” This entire prophecy, then, applies, not as 
would be supposed, to worldlings, but to professed 
Christians. It is a description of the sins of the church, 
the sins of those who»bear the name of Christ, who make 
a profession of Christianity, but who are in reality world¬ 
lings. We are to look for the fulfilment of this terrible 
catalog of sins to take place under a pretense of religion. 
And this is being fulfilled today. This is an age of for¬ 
malism and hypocrisy. Most of the religion of the pres¬ 
ent day is mere form, and pomp, and pageantry. It does 
not operate against the corrupt human nature nor cure 
besetting sins. All inward grace may be lacking, but if 
the outward forms, ceremonies, confessions, and tokens 
are adhered to, that is sufficient. The life may be entirely 
out of harmony with the precepts of the Bible, but if 
the name is on the church book, that very fact covers a 
multitude of sins. 

An Accurate Description of the Present 

These, then, are the signs of the times, the signs which 
show that Christ’s coming is near. God has accurately 
described the present generation. And as we see these 


THE SIGNS OF HIS COMING 


77 



PHARISEES “HAVING A FORM OF GODLINESS, BUT DENYING THE POWER 

THEREOF” 






































OUR LORD’S RETURN 



MEN ARE NEEDED TO-DAY TO STAND FAITHFUL TO GOD AS DID THE 
THREE WORTHIES IN DANIEL’S DAY 

things taking place all about us, and as we witness the 
prevailing iniquity of this age, it becomes more and more 
evident that God’s people today need special grace from 
heaven to stand faithful to him in such a time as this. 
Iniquity abounds on every hand. Even the sanctuary 
itself is polluted with sin and the presence of sinners. 

A Divine Message Needed Today 

We need a message from God today. There never 
was a time when the world needed a divine message more. 
And in times of lesser need in the ages of the past God 
has never failed to give the message that the times 
required. In the very darkest periods in the history of 
the world he has given his people light and instruction. 















THE SIGNS OF HIS COMING 


79 


Will he do the same now? God does not change. 
He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And just 
as surely as the message is needed today, so surely will 
it be given. Yea, it is being given. There is a message 
in the world today which contains light, and truth, and 
instruction for these times of peril and perplexity. There 
is salvation and comfort in that message for every one 
who believes it. It solves all the perplexities of these 
times; it permits us to see the final outcome of the king¬ 
doms of this world; and its proclamation will usher in 
the eternal kingdom of God. 



Photo by Paul Thompson 

A GREAT VOLCANIC ERUPTION IN JAPAN 






JOHN THE BAPTIST IN THE WILDERNESS 

CHAPTER EIGHT 

THE MESSAGE OF HIS COMING 

J)URING the centuries immediately following the estab¬ 
lishment of the Christian church by Christ and his 
apostles, an apostasy developed in the church and grew 
with such rapidity that before long it had taken the 
place, in the minds of many people, of the true gospel of 
Christ. This false and spurious system claimed to be 
the gospel itself, while it was nothing more or less than a 
counterfeit of the gospel in every detail. 

When the Christians of the church at Thessalonica 
were laboring under the impression that the second 
coming of Christ would take place in their day, Paul 
wrote to them as follows: 

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not 
come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin 
be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself 
above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as 
God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” 
2 Thess. 2: 3,'4. 

From a study of this prophecy it will appear that its 
fulfilment will involve the appearance on earth of not 
80 









THE MESSAGE <3F HIS COMING 81 

only an anti-Christian system, a system which would be 
opposed to Christ, but also a system which in every 
detail would be a complete counterfeit of the whole 
work and gospel of Christ, and that this substitution 
would present itself before the world claiming to be the 
true church and to be proclaiming the true gospel of 
Christ, while at the same time it would be only and 
altogether in every part and detail a substitution for, 
and a counterfeit of, the true church and the true gos¬ 
pel. While it would be “the man of sin” and “the 
son of perdition,” it would claim for itself all the wor¬ 
ship which is due llone to the true God, and it would 
actually take the place of God “so that he as God” 
would sit “in'the temple of God, shewing himself that 
he is God.” 

Will Cast the Truth to the Ground 

Speaking of this same apostasy Daniel describes its 
work as follows: 

“And it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and 
prospered.” Dan. 8:12. 

Now in order to prosper in the doing of such work as 
is here predicted, this system must ol necessity be com¬ 
pelled to appear before men as in all points like that of 
which it is a counterfeit. A counterfeit in order to 
“prosper,” must be a good counterfeit. Therefore this 
counterfeit of the gospel must, at least in outward ap¬ 
pearances, possess all the features of the gospel. 

It will, then, use Christian terms and have Christian 
forms and ceremonies and institutions. It will look like 
a church, it will have all the appurtenances of a church, 
it will act like a church, it will claim to be the only church, 
and it will present a scheme of salvation to men which 
will appear very like the genuine. It will be in every 
detail an exact • counterpart of that which it claims to 
be, and yet under this outward appearance its sole work 
will be to “cast down the truth to the ground.” It will 
6 


82 


OUR LORQ’S RETURN 


do the work of Satan while professing to do the work of 
Christ. It will ruin souls while professing to save them. 
It will cast down the truth while professing to defend 
and teach it. It will lead men away .from Christ while 
professing to be Christian. It will be the very master¬ 
piece of the devil’s cunning and deception while it will 
claim to be the only true church of Christ. 

A Mammoth Deception 

And in all this work it will “ prosper.” Millions will 
be deceived by it. Millions will accept it as the genuine. 
Millions will live and die in its fold, and dying will believe 
it to be the true instead of the false. Millions will give 
to it their allegiance, thinking thereby they are loyal 
to Christ. They will be so deluded by it as to be led to 
believe that the true gospel is really a falsehood. 

But during all its history among men it always has 
been, is now, and ever will be nothing but solely and 
altogether a mammoth deception and fraud. 

A Complete Counterfeit 

There is nothing true in the gospel which will not 
have its counterfeit in this false system. Thus, just as 
the gospel will teach the truth regarding God, Christ, 
redemption, mediation between God and man, the true 
priesthood, the true sanctuary, the true forgiveness, 
the true sacrifice, the true baptism, the true communion 
and the true ordinances of God; so this false system will 
teach a false god, a false saviour, a false redemption, a 
false mediation, a false priesthood, a false sanctuary, 
a false forgiveness, a false sacrifice, a false baptism, a 
false Communion, and false ordinances of the church. 

Thus, in all particulars there will be a complete counter¬ 
feit of the work and gospel of Christ. Surely this is 
Satan’s great masterpiece of deception. He has succeeded 
in changing the truth of God into a lie and has handed 
down that lie, and by many millions of people this false 


THE MESSAGE OF HIS COMING 


83 



THE FAMOUS RHEIMS CATHEDRAL 

and counterfeit system is accepted as the genuine gospel 
and work and church of Christ. For centuries this system 
kept the light of truth from shining upon the world, and 












84 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


it was not until the beginning of the sixteenth century 
that it appeared before men in its true colors, and began 
to be known for wliat it really is, Satan’s counterfeit of. 
the gospel. 

But through the protecting care of God over his truth 
and his people, and through the loyalty of those who 
preferred to give up their lives rather than the truth, 
the knowledge of the principles of the gospel was 
preserved through the dark ages of persecution and 
martyrdom. And at the beginning of the sixteenth 
century this light began to increase in power and strength, 
and truth which had been long hidden under the dark¬ 
ness of error began once more to be preached and ac¬ 
cepted by the people. 

All Truths to Be Restored 

It was the purpose of God that the light which began 
to shine with such clear rays at the beginning of the great 
Reformation should increase in volume until all the truths 
which had been perverted had been set before the world 
again in their fulness. It was not his purpose to reveal 
only a part of the truth and then have that part made 
into a creed for the formation of some denomination. 
“The path of the just is as a shining light, that shineth 
more and more unto the perfect day.” Prov. 4: 18. As 
a Christian walks in the light which he has, more light 
is given him. His knowledge of the truth increases and 
grows as he practises that which he already knows. And 
God designed by beginning the Reformation that the light 
of his truth should break over the world just as quickly as 
men should make themselves ready for it, until the very 
fulness of the gospel should again be proclaimed to the peo¬ 
ple of the earth. The light of truth was meant to advance 
until the truths regarding the true God, the true Saviour, 
the true redemption, the true mediation between God and 
man, the true priesthood, the true sanctuary, the true 
forgiveness, the true sacrifice, the true baptism, the true 


THE MESSAGE OF HIS COMING 


85 


communion, and the true ordinances of God, all of which 
had been hidden for so many centuries by the great 
system of counterfeits, should be known and preached 
in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then 
the end of all things was to come. Matt. 24: 14. 

Advancement of Truth Retarded 

This glorious consummation has been delayed by the 
formation of creeds and denominations upon only a 
part of what the Bible teaches. Thus the advancement 
of the truth has been retarded by those who have been 
content to follow great leaders to whom God had given 
only a partial revelation of truth. They have shut them¬ 
selves out from all the advanced light which God had 
still to break forth from the Bible. 

Today the creed-power is the greatest menace to the 

progress and 
growth of 
Christianity. 
It is true that 
we are con¬ 
stantly in- 
formed that 
this is an age 
of great liber- 
ality and 
breadth of 
mind in intel¬ 
lectual and 
religious mat¬ 
ters, but it is 
also true that 
the people 
permit their 
preachers t o 
do their think- 

MODERN PROTESTANT CHURCH EDIFICE ing for them, 









86 


OUR LORD S RETURN 


resulting in the inability of thousands of people to give 
an intelligent reason for the things that they believe 
other than they were so taught by their preacher. 
Thousands are thus becoming fastened in the chains of 
error because they are reluctant to investigate for them¬ 
selves. 

Creed above Bible 

Thus some have departed so far from the teachings 
of the Bible that it is considered unsafe to follow what 
the Bible teaches. The creed of the church is placed 
above the Bible. If Peter and James and John were to 
return today, poverty-stricken, cold, and hungry as they 
once were when they wandered over the hills of Galilee, 
it is doubtful if they would be permitted to preach the 
gospel of their Master until they had submitted to be 
questioned as to whether they were in good and regular 
standing in this or that church, and had given their 
assent to creeds which they had never heard before. 

The Doctrine of Christ’s Second Coming 

One of the most solemn and yet most glorious truths 
in the Scriptures is that of the second coming of Christ 
to this world to complete the great work of human re¬ 
demption. This wonderful truth is the key-note of the 
Bible, and this glorious event is the consummation of all 
the hopes of the church of Christ. The time for its 
proclamation has fully come. 

It was the purpose of God to reveal this great doctrine 
to, and have it preached by, those whom he had called 
to be leaders in the work of reformation. But by their 
course in making creeds they had shut themselves away 
from this new truth. Therefore, when the time came to 
have the message of the second coming of Christ preached 
to all the world, he found it necessary to go outside the 
established religious bodies and raise up another move¬ 
ment which would take this message to the very ends 
of the earth. 


THE MESSAGE OF HIS COMING 87 i 

The Final Message of the Gospel 

And, connected with the message of his coining, God 
designed that all the truths which had been perverted 
and hidden during previous centuries should again be 
made clear to the human family, so that at his coming 
the fulness of his truth might be revealed to the world. 
This was to be the last message of the gospel, and it 
was to contain all the truth of the gospel. In it was to 
be taught every truth that had been lost or perverted. 
Every form and ceremony and error of the spurious 
church was to be rejected in this last message, and the 
truth of God in its fulness and in its purity was to be 
presented again to the human race. 

“ And this gospel of the kingdoih shall be preached in all the world 
for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. ,, Matt. 
24:14. 

Before the first coming of Christ John the Baptist 
delivered to the people of God the message of his coming. 
This message was based on the prophecies of the Bible, 
and was designed to “make ready a people prepared for 
the Lord.” Luke 1: 17. 

Before the second coming of Christ another message 
will be delivered to all the world, warning the people of 
the coming of Christ. This also will be based upon the 
prophecies of the Bible and will be designed to make 
ready a people prepared for the Lord. This will be the 
final message of the gospel, and, as it will so fully prepare 
those who receive it to meet God that they are said to 
be “without fault before the throne of God” (Rev. 
14:5), it is evident that this final message will contain 
all the truth of God. It is “through the truth” (John 
17:17) that the people of God are sanctified, and if 
thofee who are translated become fully sanctified, it will 
be because they have the full truth of the gospel. 

“This gospel of the kingdom,” the message of the 
coming kingdom, will “be preached in all the world for 
a witness unto all nations,” not for their conversion, 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


88 

but “for a witness,” “and then shall the end come.” 
That is, a people will be raised up, as was John the Baptist, 
who will take the message of the coming Saviour, and 
the fulness of the truth of the gospel, to all the world 
just before the second coming of Christ. And when they 
have completed that task, when they have warned the 
world, and given it the truth, and the world has re¬ 
jected the message, “then shall the end come.” 

Satan’s Anger against the Remnant 

It is to be expected that Satan will manifest special 
anger against this last church of Christ, the remnant 
church. In the message which it will bear to the world 
will be uncovered all the, deceptions which he has 
pfactised upon the world; all the truths which he has 
caused to be perverted will be preached again in their 
purity, and the great counterfeit system will be unmasked 
and held before the world in its true light, as only and 
altogether a counterfeit. This will stir the wrath of the 
dragon. 

“And the dragon [the devil] was wroth [angry] with the woman 
[the church], and went to make war with the remnant of her seed 
[the last church, or last end of the church], which keep the command¬ 
ments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Rev. 12: 17. 

This last church, which will be the full fruitage of the 
Reformation, will have revealed in it all of the truths 
which are contained in the gospel of Christ and which 
Satan has so successfully hidden under his great counter¬ 
feit system during the centuries of the dark ages. And, 
connected with these truths, it will proclaim the second 
coming of Christ. 

Inasmuch as this last church of Christ will be the 
exact opposite of the system which Satan has designed 
shall take the place of the gospel, it is not to be wondered 
at that “the dragon” makes special war against this 
“remnant” which “keeps the commandments of God” 
and delivers the last message of God to the world. 


THE MESSAGE OF HIS COMING 


89 


This last message, containing, as it does, the very 
fulness of God’s truth, will not be preached in a corner 
to just a few people, but will be taken to the ends of the 
earth, “ preached in all the world as a witness to all 
nations,” with the additional truth that Jesus is soon 
coming. When it has been taken to all the earth, Jesus 
will come the second time, and the great controversy 
between Christ and Satan will come to an eternal end. 

Let the reader be admonished and search diligently 
for this great final message of the gospel, for in it is 
salvation and light and comfort for the people of the 
earth in this generation. 



MT. SINAI WHERE THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD WERE GIVEN 










‘AS THE LIGHTNING COMETH OUT OF THE EAST, AND SHINETH EVEN 
UNTO THE WEST; SO SHALL ALSO THE COMING OF THE SON OF MAN BE” 


CHAPTER NINE 

THE MANNER OF HIS COMING 

£HERE is no doubt but that before the second coming 
of Christ Satan will attempt to counterfeit this great 
event by appearing himself in the assumed character 
and likeness of Christ. This counterfeit Christ will be 
accepted by multitudes as the true Christ. 

The prediction that Christ’s second coming will be 
counterfeited is made in several places in the New Testa¬ 
ment. In this connection let the following passages be 
considered: 

“ Many shall come in my name, saying, lam Christ; and shall de¬ 
ceive many.” Matt. 24:5. 

“If any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe 
it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and 
shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, 
they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. 

90 







THE MANNER OF HIS COMING 


91 


Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; 
go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.” 
Matt. 24:23-26. 

“Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my 
name, saying, I am Christ.” Luke 21:8. 

From these passages it is clear the Bible teaches 
that the coming of Christ will be preceded by the ap¬ 
pearance of a false and spurious Christ; that great multi¬ 
tudes, not having studied the Scriptures regarding the 
manner of the coming of Christ, will be led astray by 
this false Christ; and that there is sufficient truth in the 
Bible regarding the manner of Christ’s coming to guard 
the people of God from being carried away by this de¬ 
lusion. “Behold, I have told you before.” 

A False Christ 

The appearance of this false and counterfeit Christ 
must of necessity, in order to deceive, be very like the 
appearance of Christ himself. The appearance of the 
deceiver has been described by a deep and qualified 
student of the Scriptures in a book which for profound 
understanding of the prophecies of the last days cannot 
be surpassed, a book which I earnestly commend to the 
reader of these pages, and which can be secured from 
the publishers of this volume. 

“Persons will arise pretending to be Christ himself, and claiming 
the title and worship which belong to the world’s Redeemer. They 
will perform wonderful miracles of healing, and will profess to have 
revelations from heaven contradicting the Scriptures. 

“As the crowning act in the great drama of deception, Satan him¬ 
self will personate Christ. The church has long professed to look for 
the Saviour’s advent as the consummation of her hopes. Now the 
great deceiver will make it appear that Christ has come. In different 
parts of the earth, Satan will manifest himself among men as a majestic 
being of dazzling brightness, resembling the description of the Son 
of God given by John in the Revelation. (Rev. 1:13-15.) The glory 
that surrounds him is unsurpassed by anything that mortal eyes have 
yet beheld. The shout of triumph rings out upon the air, 4 Christ 
has come! Christ has come!’ The people prostrate themselves in 
adoration before him, while he lifts up his hands and pronounces a 
blessing upon them, as Christ blessed his disciples when he was upon 
the earth. His voice is soft and subdued, yet full of melody. . . . 


92 


OUR LORD'S RETURN 


This is the strong, almost overmastering delusion. Like the Samari¬ 
tans who were deceived by Simon Magus, the multitudes, from the 
least to the greatest, give heed to these sorceries, saying, This js 
‘the great power of God.’ ”— “Great Controversy Between Christ 
and Satan” page 624- 

While multitudes will be swept off their feet by this 
final deception of Satan, those who have made the 
Word of God the man of their counsel need not be de¬ 
ceived. Christ said, “ Behold, I have told you before.” 
Therefore it is clear that by a study of the Bible one can 
so completely understand the exact manner of Christ’s 
return to this earth that he will not be deceived by any 
attempt to counterfeit it. 

He Will Appear 

Concerning the manner of Christ’s coming, the Bible 
declares: 

“Unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time 
without sin unto salvation.” Heb. 9:28. 

Attention is directed to this word, “ appear.” Christ, 
when he comes the second time, will come in an open, 
public manner; there will be nothing secret about it; 
there will be nothing hidden from the eyes of men; he 
will “appear.” That is, he will be seen by the people 
dwelling on the earth. 

Notice, too, the following expression: 

“Looking for the blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the 
great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” Titus 2: 13. 

The second coming of Christ will be an appearing, not 
at all a secret, hidden coming at death, as many today 
preach; nor that spiritual, invisible coming, unrecog¬ 
nized by the world, that Russellism teaches. Christ 
will appear. His coming will be literal, personal, visible. 
It will be a real coming, not the coming of a “ spirit 
being,” an “invisible Lord,” but of the very same Jesus 
who walked with his disciples on the hills of Galilee. 

The Bible emphasizes this thought that the Lord will 
appear when he comes. There is no need of any mis¬ 
understanding here. 


THE MANNER OF HIS COMING 


93 


“When Christ, who is our life, shall appear” Col. 3: 4. 

“When the chief Shepherd shall appear” 1 Pet. 5:4. 

“And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear , 
we may have confidence.” 1 John 2: 28. 

“We know that, when he shall appear , we shall be like him; for 
we shall see him” 1 John 3:2. 

“Be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of 
Jesus Christ.” 1 Pet. 1:7. 

“Until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Tim. 6: 14. 

# “Who shrill judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and 
his kingdom.” 2 Tim. 4: 1. 

“And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven 
with power and great glory.” Matt. 24: 30. 

A Personal, Visible Coming 

Surely these passages are sufficient to forever settle 
the point that when Christ conies the second time his 
coming will be a literal, personal, visible, public coming. 

And it must be pointed out in this connection that this 
appearing of Christ is a world-wide appearing. He will 
be seen and will appear to all the world, not merely to a 
certain class which may be expecting him, not merely 
to the church, not merely to the righteous, but to every 
living soul on the earth. This is very clearly stated. 

“And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see 
the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great 
glory.” Matt. 24:30. 

Notice that it is “all the tribes of the earth” which 
shall see Christ when he comes. And this truth that 
the coming of Christ will be witnessed by the entire 
world is made still stronger by John, who says: 

“Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him , and 
they also which pierced him.” Rev. 1:7. 

The idea, then, that Christ will come secretly, taking 
one here and one there, and that this information will 
become known to the rest of mankind only by the absence 
of those who have been taken away, is untrue. 

A Demonstration of Power and Glory 

The coming of Christ will be accompanied by such a 
demonstration of power and glory that nothing in all 


94 


our Lord s return 


the annals of history will compare with it. The Lord 
will not even come in silence, for we read: 

“The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with 
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God.” 1 Thess. 4:16. 

And his coming will be visible: 

“As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto 
the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matt. 
24:27. 

His coming will be overwhelming in glory and majesty. 
We read: 

“They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven 
with power and great glory ” Matt. 24:30. 

“He shall come in his own glory, and his Father’s, and of the holy 
angels” Luke 9:26. 

In Like Manner 

A description of the exact manner of the second coming 
of Christ was given by the angels who spoke to the disciples 
at the time of Christ’s ascension. The record is: 

“While they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, 
behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, 
Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same 
Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like 
manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Acts 1:10, 11. 

Notice the expression, “in like manner as ye have 
seen him go.” He went away visibly; he will return 
visibly. He went away personally; he will return per¬ 
sonally, “this same Jesus.” He went away literally; he 
will return literally. He went away with clouds, “a cloud 
received him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9); “behold, 
he cometh with clouds” (Rev. 1:7), and “they shall 
see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven” 
(Matt. 24:30). 

He Will Come with Wrath 

And when Christ comes the second time he will come 
with wrath to destroy his adversaries. He will not come to 
reign as king over a world that has been converted, and 
which has laid down its arms. His wrath will blaze 


THE MANNER OF HIS COMING 


95 



CHRIST’S ASCENSION 

forth against unregenerate men, and they will be con¬ 
sumed by the brightness of his coming and overwhelmed 
by the glory of his presence. When wicked men shall 








96 OUR LORD’S RETURN 

see him coming they will call for the rocks and the moun¬ 
tains to fall on them and hide them from the face of him 
that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the 
lamb. Rev. 6: 15-17. 

And this will take place because “the Lord hath a 
controversy with the nations.” Jer. 25: 31. We are not 
left to vague conjecture and speculation regarding the 
reason for this controversy. It is a controversy between 


“THEY WILL CALL FOR THE ROCKS AND THE MOUNTAINS TO 
FALL ON THEM” 

right and wrong. The world will be unconverted when 
Christ comes, and will be found fighting against God. 

“The Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, 
because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the 
land. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and com¬ 
mitting adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.” Hos. 
4:1, 2. 

Sin, then, is the cause of the controversy between 
God and man. The transgression which first inter- 








THE MANNER OF HIS COMING 97 

rupted the harmony existing between Creator and 
creature brought a curse upon this revolted province of 
the divine dominions and a curse upon the rebellious race. 
And that curse has continued and has been the cause 
of all the woe, the unrest, and the death, both of nations 
and men; and it will finally overwhelm this world. 

The Wine Cup of God’s Fury 

God used the prophet Jeremiah, who in his youth had 
been set “over the nations and over the kingdoms, to 
root out, and to pull down, to build, and to plant” (Jer. 
1:10), to inform us of the outcome of his controversy 
with the nations. Anciently it was the custom of the 
king to inflict the death penalty on criminal characters 
by a cup of poison, and in speaking of God’s dealings 
with the nations, the prophet uses this figure. 

“For thus said the Lord God of Israel unto me: Take the wine 
cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I 
send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be 
mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. Then took 
I the cup at the Lord’s hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto 
whom the Lord had sent me.” Jer. 25:15-17. 

The prophet then enumerates by name the nations of 
that time who were treated as guilty criminals, deserving 
of God’s wrath. Then his vision widens and covers un¬ 
known nations and empires of the future until it involves 
all the earth, for he says: 

“And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, 
and all the kingdoms of the world , which are upon the face of the earth: 
. . . Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of 

hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunken, and spew, and 
fall , and rise no more , because of the sword which I will send among 
you. And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to 
drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; 
Ye shall certainly drink. For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city 
which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? 
Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the 
inhabitants of the earth } saith the Lord of hosts. Therefore prophesy 

7 


98 


OUR LORD S RETURN 



FORERUNNERS 



THE MANNER OF HIS COMING 


99 

thou against them all th6se 
words, and say unto them, 
The Lord shall roar from 
on high, and utter his 
voice from his holy habi¬ 
tation; he shall mightily 
roar upon his habitation; 
he shall give a shout, as 
they that tread the grapes, 
against all the inhabitants 
of the earth. A noise 
shall come even to the ends 
of the earth; for the Lord 
hath a controversy with the 
nations, he will plead with 
all flesh; he will give them 
that are wicked to the sword, 
saith the Lord. Thus saitli 
the Lord of hosts, Behold, 
evil shall go forth from 
nation to nation, and a 
great whirlwind shall he 
raised up from the coasts of 
the earth. And the slain 
of the Lord shall he at that 
"A great whirlwind shall be raised UP” day from one end of the 

earth even unto the other 
end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; 
they shall he dung upon the ground .” Jer. 25: 26-33. 

God’s Fearful Malediction 

This prophecy covers the record of the entire contro¬ 
versy between God and man, forewritten by Jeremiah. 
The judgments of God which began upon Jerusalem 
and Israel and the surrounding nations because of their 
rejection of his authority and truth were to overspread 
all the earth. The nations named, upon which the wrath 
of God was pronounced, have disappeared, but the prophet 
did not stop with them. He takes God’s fearful male¬ 
diction and hurls it down to the very end of time, fasten¬ 
ing it upon “all the kingdoms of the world, which are 
upon the face of the earth.” The noise of this conflict 
is to “come even to the ends of the earth, for the Lord 
hath a controversy with the nations.” 






100 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 



And the outcome of this great conflict is very clearly re¬ 
vealed in the words, “He will plead with all flesh; he will 
give them that are wicked to the sword.” God’s wrath 
“shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked,” 
and this work of desolation shall take place “in the 
latter days.” Jer. 23:19, 20. 

The Tempest of the Wrath of God 

As a result of this great tempest of the wrath of God, 
which is to come “in the latter days” upon all “the 
kingdoms of the world which are upon the face of the 
earth,” the earth from end to end is to be strewn with 
the slain of the Lord, ungathered, unlamented, un¬ 
buried. It is at this time that the prophet saw the earth, 
“and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens 
were fled. . . . The fruitful place was a wilderness, 


WESTERN CYCLONE 





THE MANNER OF HIS COMING 101 

and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence 
of the Lord, and by his fierce anger.” Jer. 4:25, 26. 

The Death Warrant of the Race 

The utter depopulation and ruin of the earth — such 
is the terrible destiny which overhangs this world. Not 
since the waters of the flood overwhelmed the human 
race has such a terrible and widespread destruction been 
known to man. In history there has been no fulfilment 
of this prediction. The war which humanity has been 
waging against Jehovah has not reached its final issue. 
But the end is hurrying on apace. The wrath of God, 
like a pall of darkness, overhangs the impenitent world. 
It is the death-warrant of a godless and impious race. 
Nothing but slaughter as wide as the world can fill in 
the terrible picture. And when the time has come for 
God to pronounce judgment, “ behold, the Lord will 
come with fire and with his chariots, like a whirlwind, 
to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames 
of fire. For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead 
with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many.” 
Isa. 66:15, 16. 

In this manner the Lord will close his controversy 
with the nations. In this manner he will come. This 
will be Armageddon. When the nations of the earth 
unite against God, against his people, against his truth, 
against his law, and “give their power and strength unto 
the beast,” and “make war with the Lamb,” then “the 
Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and 
King of kings.” Rev. 17:13, 14. 

God himself will fight in the great battle of Armageddon. 
For this reason it is called “the battle of the great day 
of God Almighty.” Rev. 16:14. In the nineteenth of 
Revelation we are given a wonderful picture of the 
manner in which Jesus will come and fight with the 
nations. The heavens will open, and down the parted 
skies the white war-horses come marching. The great 


102 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


Captain of salvation marshals the hosts of the Lord. 
Like a flame of fire are his eyes. Following him are the 
warriors of heaven all clothed in spotless white. They 
go forth to decide the controversy of God with man. The 
King travels in the greatness of his strength. “Out of 
his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should 
smite the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod 
of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness 
and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath in his vesture 
and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, 
AND LORD OF LORDS.” Rev. 19:15, 16. 

The Warriors of Heaven 

These warriors of heaven, the army which will fight for 
God at Armageddon, are wonderfully described in the 
following passage: 

“A great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, 
neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many genera¬ 
tions. A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: 
the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a 
desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The ap¬ 
pearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, 
so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains 
shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stub¬ 
ble, like strong people set in battle array. Before their face the people 
shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.. They shall run 
like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall 
march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks: 
neither .shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his 
path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. 
They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, 
they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows 
like a thief. The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall 
tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall 
withdraw their shining: and the Lord shall utter his voice before 
his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth 
his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who 
can abide it?” Joel 2:2-11. 

This is the great event which lies in the immediate 
future, in this very generation, and this is the manner 
of its occurrence. Let the reader yield his life to the 
Lord that he may be hid in this time of trouble, and 
may be prepared to meet the Lord in peace. 



“THE CITIES OF THE EARTH WILL BE BROKEN DOWN ” 

CHAPTER TEN 

THE MILLENNIUM 

JT IS at the coming of Christ that the thousand years 
of the millennium begin. At this time Satan is bound 
so that he will be unable to deceive the nations. After 
the millennium he will be loosed from his bondage and 
will again enter upon the work of deception for a short 
time. The only passage in the Bible which makes definite 
reference to the thousand-year period of the millennium 
is as follows: 

“And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of 
the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold 
on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and 
bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, 
and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the 
nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after 
that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, and they 
sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the 
souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the 
Word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his 
image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their 
hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 
But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were 
finished. This is the first resurrection.” Rev. 20:1-5. 


103 







104 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


The word “ millennium ” comes from two Latin 
words, mille, meaning a thousand, and annus , meaning 
year,— a thousand years. There is no other meaning 
to the word. It does not mean what its perverted use 
has come to convey to the minds of many people — a 
thousand-year period of great peace, prosperity, and 
salvation upon this earth. This has been the generally 
accepted meaning of the term, but there is no such 
meaning in the term itself. It means merely a thousand 
years, without specifying anything at all as to the charac¬ 
ter of that period. 

This thousand-year period, the millennium, begins, as 
has been said, with the second coming of Christ. During 
the thousand years Satan will be bound in some place 
called “the bottomless pit.” This is for the purpose of 
restraining him from deceiving the nations, and to 
partially punish him. 

World Not to Be Converted 

From the fact that Satan is bound it has been con¬ 
cluded that the millennium will be a very happy, glorious 
time of peace among the nations, that all the nations 
will be converted to the gospel, and as a result disband 
their armies, dismantle their navies, and learn war no 
more. This theory has been taught so long that it has 
come to be widely accepted, but it has absolutely no 
foundation at all in the Scriptures. 

There is nothing in the Bible which would lead any one 
to suppose that before the end of the world the nations 
will all be converted to the gospel and cease to fight each 
other. The Bible teaches just the contrary. The theory 
that the world is becoming better and better is not based 
on the teaching of the Bible. This theory of a millennium 
of peace and safety on this earth is but another of the 
deceptions of Satan, and has been invented by him in 
order to lead the people of God to believe that Christ 
will not come until the world has been brought to a con- 


THE MILLENNIUM 


105 


dition of conversion to the gospel (to which it will never 
be brought) and as a result lead them to say, “My Lord 
delayeth his coming.” 

The verse upon which much of the teaching of the 
world’s conversion is based is that in Matt. 24:14: 
“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in 
all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then 
shall the end come.” But this verse does not teach at 
all that the world will be converted. It teaches merely 
that the gospel will be sent to all the world, not for the 
conversion of the nations, but “for a witness” unto all 
nations. 

The Bible nowhere teaches that the whole world will 
be converted. In the parable of the wheat and tares, 
recorded in Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43, it is made very 
plain that both the righteous and the wicked are to 
“grow together” until the “harvest,” which is explained 
to be “the end of the world.” At the end of the world, 
instead of the wicked all being converted, they are to 
be cast into a furnace of fire, where there will be wailing 
and gnashing of teeth. 

World Growing Worse and Worse 

Instead of the world growing better and better as the 
exponents of the world-conversion theory teach, we are 
plainly told in the Bible that “evil men and seducers 
shall wax worse and worse , deceiving and being deceived.” 
2 Tim. 3:13. 

Jesus himself, in speaking of the days immediately 
preceding his second coming, declared: 

“As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days 
of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married 
wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered 
into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also 
as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, 
they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot 
went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and 
destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of 
man is revealed .” Luke 17: 26-30. 



106 


THE WORLD GROWING WORSE AND WORSE “AS IT WAS IN THE DAYS OF NOAH 
















THE MILLENNIUM 


107 


Hence, all that it is necessary to do in order to dis¬ 
cover the character of the days just before the coming 
of Christ is to refer t6 the history of the days just be¬ 
fore the flood and the destruction of Sodom and Go¬ 
morrah. Concerning the conditions prevailing on the 
earth in the days of the flood, we read: 

“And God.saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, 
and that, every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only 
evil continually.” Gen. 6:5. 

So will it be in the days of the coming of Christ the 
second time. 

An Age of Peril 

We have a picture of the last days of the history of 
this earth, painted by divine inspiration. It is in 2 Tim. 
3: 1-5, and has already been commented on at length in 
the chapter on the signs of Christ’s coming. Surely from 
this description, which is not a description of the world 
in general, but rather of the church, it does not appear 
that the world is to be converted in the last days. And if 
the professed church of Christ in the days of the second 
coming of Christ can be so described by divine inspiration, 
then what must the world at large be? 

Nor are we left in ignorance by the Lord even of the 
rise of the movement which is teaching the world’s con¬ 
version and a millennium of peace upon the earth. 

“Of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I 
write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the 
Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace 
and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them.” 1 Thess. 5:1-3. 

It appears, then, that this very movement which is 
proclaiming the world’s conversion and predicting peace 
is a sign in itself of the rapidly approaching destruction 
of all things. 

Prophecies Misapplied 

But, it will be asked, does not the Bible teach some¬ 
where that all the world at some time in the future will 
be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, and all nations 


108 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


serve him? Yes, the Bible does teach just this. But the 
mistake has been made in not seeing that this is taught 
with reference to the earth in its regenerated condition, 
when all things are made new, and not regarding the 
earth as it is now. 

‘‘The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters 
cover the sea.” Isa. 11:9. 

“And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, 
and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship 
before me, saith the Lord.” Isa. 66: 23. 

These passages clearly foretell a time when all the 
earth will be acquainted with Jehovah, and will worship 
him. But they have reference solely to the new earth, 
not to the earth in its present condition. And this con¬ 
dition of universal worship is to be brought about, not 
at all by the conversion of the nations of the earth, but 
rather by their destruction. Thus Peter informs us: 

“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the 
which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements 
shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are 
therein shall be burned up.” “Nevertheless, we, according to his 
promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth 
righteousness.” 2 Pet. 3: 10, 13. 

Order of Millennial Events 

Now let us study briefly the order of the events in 
connection with the beginning and closing of the millen¬ 
nium. It is to begin, as we have seen, with the second 
coming of Christ. At this time there are four classes of 
people on the earth; namely, the righteous dead and the 
righteous living, and the wicked dead and the wicked 
living. Let us notice what becomes of each class. 

At the coming of Christ all the righteous dead will 
be raised from their graves to be taken to heaven with 
the righteous living, who are to be translated. 

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, 
with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the 
dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall 
he caught up together with them in the clouds , to meet the Lord in the 
air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thess. 4:16, 17. 


THE MILLENNIUM 


109 


Thus the righteous dead and the righteous living are 
taken together to be with the Lord. Where they then 
go is very clearly revealed in the following passage: 

“In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I 
would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go 
and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto 
myself; that where 1 am, there ye may he also .” John 14: 2, 3. 

The Righteous Taken to Heaven 

It is plain from this that when the righteous dead are 
raised at the second coming of Christ, and all the righteous 
living are translated, they are then removed from the 
earth and taken to heaven to those mansions which 
Christ has been preparing for them. And there in heaven 
“they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” 
Rev. 20:4. The righteous are all in heaven during the 
millennium. 

The wicked dead are not raised at the second coming 
of Christ. They are left unmolested in their tombs. 
Their sleep is not broken at this time. 

“But the rest of the dead [the wicked] lived not again until the 
thousand years were finished.” Rev. 20: 5. 

There are two resurrections, a resurrection of the 
righteous at the second coming of Christ, and a resur¬ 
rection of the wicked one thousand years later, at the 
close of the millennium. Thus the millennium opens 
with a resurrection and closes with a resurrection. 

The Living Wicked Destroyed 

The living wicked will be destroyed at the second 
coming of Christ, and will remain dead until the second 
resurrection, at the close of the millennium. It is the 
living wicked at the coming of Christ “whom the Lord 
shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall 
destroy with the brightness of his coming.” 2 Thess. 2:8. 

From what has now been said it will be clear what 
becomes of all four classes on the earth at the second 


110 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


coming of Christ. The righteous dead will be raised, 
the righteous living will be translated, and together these 
two classes will be taken to heaven to live and reign 
with Christ for a thousand years; the wicked dead are 
left in their tombs, the wicked living are all brought to 
death, and together these two classes will remain in the 
prison-house of death until the close of the millennium. 

The Earth Depopulated 

Thus it is plain that at the coming of Christ this earth 
will be entirely emptied of its inhabitants, all the wicked 
being dead on the earth and all the righteous having 
been taken to heaven with Christ. It follows that during 
the millennium this earth will be depopulated. 

A description of the condition of the wicked in that 
day will be found in the book of Jeremiah: 

“And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the 
earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, 
neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.” 
Jer. 25:33. 

A description of the condition of the earth during the 
millennium will be found in Isaiah: 

“Behold the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, 
and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants 
thereof.” “The land is utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the 
Lord hath spoken this word.” Isa. 24:1, 3. 

God also gave Jeremiah a view of the earth during 
the time of the millennium: 

“I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and 
the heavens, and they had.no light. I beheld the mountains, and, 
lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, 
there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, 
and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof 
were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by his fierce anger. 
For thus hath the Lord said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet 
will I not make a full end.” Jer. 4: 23-27. 

From this we see that the condition of the earth during 
the millennium will be that of a waste, desolate wilder¬ 
ness. There will be no man here. The righteous will 


THE MILLENNIUM 


111 



“THE WHOLE LAND SHALL BE DESOLATE” 

be in heaven. The wicked will all be dead. The cities 
of the earth will be broken down at the presence of the 
Lord. All the works of man will be destroyed. Dark¬ 
ness will cover the earth. The bodies of the dead will be 
from one end of the earth to the other end. There will 
be no one to lament them or bury them. 

The Bottomless Pit 

It is the earth in this condition which is called the 
“ bottomless pit,” into which Satan is cast and bound. 
The term “bottomless pit” is used in Rev. 9:1 and 2, and 



112 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


is there applied to the Arabian desert, from which issued 
the hordes of Saracens and Turks which are described 
in that chapter. The term means any place of darkness, 
desolation, and death. And when the earth, during the 
millennium, returns to its original condition of chaos, 
“without form and void,” it becomes the “bottomless 
pit” of Satan’s captivity. 

Here, in this desolate earth, with its cities broken down, 
and its whole expanse become a great wilderness, without 
any of the human race left, Satan will be compelled to stay 
for one thousand years. He is bound with a great chain. 
This chain is not a literal chain, but a chain of circum¬ 
stances. He is unable to do anything. He is out of 
work. He cannot deceive the righteous, for they are 
in heaven, out of his reach. He cannot deceive the 
wicked, for they are ^11 dead. There is nothing that 
he can do. By the very circumstances of his position 
he is bound, and he must of necessity remain bound 
until some change is brought about either in the condition 
of the righteous or the wicked. 

A Just Punishment 

While this is not Satan’s final punishment, it is a just 
preliminary to it. It is sin which causes the wreck of 
the world. It is sin which causes the cities of the earth 
to be broken down. It is sin that slays the wicked. 
It is sin that makes the earth a desolate wilderness. 
All this is the work of Satan. This is the result of the 
rebellion he started in heaven and continued upon this 
earth. And now, during the millennium, he is made to 
understand what it all means, what its results have been. 
This ruined world is his handiwork. And he is compelled 
to view the results of his work for a thousand years. He 
is compelled to live in the conditions which he himself 
has brought about. His work of deception has been made 
impossible. The righteous have at last escaped his grasp 
and are enjoying the delights of heaven at the court 


THE MILLENNIUM 


113 


of the King of the universe. The wicked are before him, 
but they are cold in death. 

Resurrection of the Wicked 

The great chain which will bind Satan will be broken 
by the resurrection of the wicked. 

“But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years 
were finished.” Rev. 20: 5. 

Now, if the rest of the dead lived not again until the 
thousand years were finished, then when the thousand 
years are finished the rest of the dead will live again. 
The resurrection of the wicked takes place at the close of 
the millennium. This releases the devil and provides 
him some one to work with again and deceive. It was 
the emptiness of the earth of all human inhabitants 
which constituted his binding, and now the resurrection 
of the wicked effects his release. 

And no sooner are the wicked raised from the dead 
than Satan begins to plan for his last great attempt to 
overthrow the government of God. When the wicked 
are raised he has a greater host at his command than 
ever before in the entire history of his rebellion. All 
the wicked who have ever lived upon the earth are 
now under his full control and ready to do his bidding. 
And all the angels who were cast out of heaven are still 
with him, and are now in such desperation as to be ready 
for anything. Satan lays before them a great project, 
and they agree to it and lay plans to bring it to pass. 
They are led to hope for success, but instead they meet 
their eternal destiny in oblivion. 


8 



114 


JERUSALEM FROM THE MOUNT OF OLIVES IN THE DAYS OF CHRIST 














1. CITY OF JERUSALEM. 2. VALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT. 3. MOUNT 
OF OLIVES. 

CHAPTER ELEVEN 

THE THIRD COMING OF CHRIST 

TjESUS came the first time to this earth nineteen cen- 
^ turies ago; he will come the second time in this present 
generation; and he will come the third time at the close 
of the thousand years of the millennium. 

It is at the close of the millennium that the Holy City, 
the new Jerusalem, comes down from God out of heaven 
and rests upon the earth. Christ also, attended by the 
great host of the saved of all ages, and by a company 
of glorious angels, returns to this earth. 

“And the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.” 
Zech. 14:5. 

“And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, 
which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall 
cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, 
and there shall be a very great valley.” Zech. 14: 4. 

“And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall 
there be one Lord, and his name one.” Zech. 14: 9. 

As Christ comes down from the heavens the third time, 
his voice rolls through all the earth, and in response to his 
call the mighty hosts of the wicked awake from their sleep 

115 







116 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


of death and stand up upon the earth. And then in the 
sight of the wicked the New Jerusalem settles down upon 
the place prepared for it by the cleaving asunder of the 
Mount of Olives. Christ and the redeemed take their 
place in the city, which is to become the capital of a 
glorified new earth. 

“And I John saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down 
from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the taber¬ 
nacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall 
be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” 
Rev. 21:2, 3. 

Satan is released from his captivity by the resurrection 
of the wicked. Around him are gathered the vast hosts 
of his own evil angels, and now this great company is 
joined by the innumerable throngs of the wicked, “the 
number of whom is as the sands of the sea.” Some of 
them are the giants who lived on the earth before the flood. 
And some are skilled in warfare, and are just as eager 
as ever to destroy their opponents. 

As Satan sees himself joined by this great host, and 
beholds before him the New Jerusalem containing the 
righteous and the holy angels with their loved commander, 
the Son of God, he determines that he will not yet yield 
his struggle. He points out to his angels and the mighty 
men of the earth that the city is unprotected, and would 
doubtless be unable to resist attack. He inspires them 
with the hope that after all they may be able to over¬ 
throw the government of God and take the city. 

The Attack against the Holy City 

Led by this delusive hope the wicked prepare them¬ 
selves for the last great struggle for the supremacy of 
the world. Weapons of warfare are prepared; companies, 
battalions, regiments, and corps are formed and drilled; 
and then the great host of the lost is led forth by Satan 
to take the Holy City. 


THE THIRD COMING OF CHRIST 


117 


“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed 
out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in 
the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them to¬ 
gether to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And 
they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp 
of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire came down from 
God out of heaven, and devoured them. ,, Rev. 20:7-9. 

As the great host of the wicked surround the Holy 
City the fire of God falls from heaven, and the vast 
multitude of evil men and fallen angels are overwhelmed. 
This fire does not perpetuate the wicked, but devours them. 
This is the second death, from which there will never be 
any recovery. 

The Destiny of Satan 

The fire will have the same effect upon Satan and his 
angels that it has upon the wicked. They will also be 
brought to nothing and be as though they had not been. 
This is very plain from the words which God spoke to 
Satan. 

“I will destroy thee, 0 covering cherub, from the midst of the 
stones of fire. ... I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee 
before kings, that they may behold thee. ... I will bring forth 
a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee 
to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All 
they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou 
shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou he any more” Ezek. 28:16-19. 

The destiny of Satan is also referred to in the book 
of Malachi. 

“For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all 
the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the 
day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it 
shall leave them neither root nor branch.” Mai. 4:1. 

Thus the end of the great conflict of the ages between 
Christ and Satan will result in the utter destruction of 
Satan and his angels and all who ally themselves with 
him. The fires of the last day will consume them and 
leave them neither root nor branch. Satan is the root, 
and the wicked are the branches. The universe is to be 
cleansed from every stain of sin. 


118 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


The Earth Purified by Fire 

The fire which consumes the wicked will also purify 
the earth. Great billows of flame will burn the ruined 
works of men. The last remnants of sin will be con¬ 
sumed. “The elements shall melt with fervent heat, 
the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be 
burned up.” 2 Pet. 3: 10. The long controversy against 
God is closed. The last foe, death, has been destroyed. 
1 Cor. 15: 26. The warring world has at last been over¬ 
thrown, and all is now at peace with God. The first 
heaven and the first earth, the great theatre of sin, the 
scene of strife and rebellion, have passed away, and when 
they have been purified by the fires of the last day which 
come down from heaven, then by the word of the Lord 
there is brought into existence “new heavens and a new 
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 2 Pet. 3:13. 

Upon the billows of flame which have purified the earth, 
the Holy City, with the righteous nations of the saved 
within it, has ridden safely. And when the flames sub¬ 
side, having accomplished the work of purifying the earth, 
the city settles into its place to become the eternal capital 
of the universe of God. God will dwell in it, and the 
throne of the Lamb will be in it, and it will remain for 
all eternity the center of the entire universe. 

After the desolation of the millennium and the purifying 
fires at the close of the millennium, the earth will blossom 
again and become the home of the redeemed of the Lord. 
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” 
Matt. 5:5. Then shall be fulfilled the prophecy of 
Isaiah: 

“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them 
[the redeemed]; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. 
It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: 
the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel 
and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency 
of our God. . . . For in the wilderness shall waters break out, 

and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become 
a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water; in the habitation of 


THE THIRD COMING OF CHRIST 


119 


dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. And 
an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way 
of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: 
the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall 
be there; . . . but the redeemed shall walk there; and the ran¬ 

somed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and ever¬ 
lasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, 
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” Isaiah 35. 




“THEY WILL NOT SPEND ETERNITY IN HEAVEN, BUT ON EARTH” 
120 







CHAPTER TWELVE 

THE HOME OF THE SAVED 

£HE purified new earth will be the home of the saved 
throughout eternity. At the second coming of Christ 
his people will go with him to heaven, but they will 
remain there only a thousand years, and at the close of 
the millennium they will return to this earth to make 
it their eternal home. They will not spend eternity in 
heaven, but on earth. 

There is no promise in the Bible that those who are 
saved will be given heaven as their eternal reward. But 
there are numerous promises of a glorious inheritance 
for the saints of the Lord. What that inheritance is, 
and where it is, the Scriptures make very plain. 

We are informed by David that “the heaven, even the 
heavens, are the Lord’s: but the earth hath he given to 
the children of men.” Ps. 115: 16. And in Isa. 45: 18 
we read that God formed the earth “not in vain, he 
formed it to be inhabited.” It is inconceivable that God 
created the earth to be inhabited under its present 
conditions or by its present inhabitants. His purpose 
involved its being inhabited by a race of pure, holy, and 
righteous beings. He planned for just such a race when 
he placed our first parents here in the garden of Eden. 
That race was to fill the earth, live forever, ever remain 

121 




122 


OUR LORD'S RETURN 


as pure and holy as when their parents came from the 
hands of God, and constitute the kingdom of God on 
earth. This plan has been delayed for a while by the en¬ 
trance of sin, but God will yet have his way. 

Earth to Be Redeemed 

This earth was given to the human race at the time of 
its creation, and although it has been captured by Satan, 
this lost inheritance will yet be brought back to the 
children of God by the great plan of redemption, which 
includes the lost dominion as well as the lost race. Man¬ 
kind lost possession of the earth by sin, but it will be 
restored to the people of God through the gospel of 
Christ. And everything else which the race lost by sin 
will be restored by Christ. 

The first specific promise of the future inheritance 
recorded in the Bible is that given to Abraham. 

“Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou 
art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward; for all 
the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever.” 
Gen. 13:14-17. 

This promise was repeated to Isaac, the son of Abra¬ 
ham, in Gen. 26:1-4, and to Jacob, the son of Isaac, in 
Gen. 28:12-15. 

Earth Promised to Abraham 

All that is included in this promise in the way of 
territory is not apparent on the surface, and a divine 
explanation is therefore required concerning it. This 
inspired explanation is given by Paul in Rom. 4:13, 
where he declares that this promise made to Abraham 
included the entire earth. 

“For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was 
not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the 
righteousness of faith.” 

It is evident from this that God made Abraham and 
his descendants a promise that they should inherit the 
earth forever. 


123 


THE HOME OF THE SAVED 

Promise Not Fulfilled 

But this promise has never yet been fulfilled. Abraham 
is dead, and he died without having seen the fulfilment of 
this promise. His son Isaac died, and still the promise 
was not fulfilled. Isaac’s son Jacob also passed away, 
and the fulfilment of the promise still tarried. It is not 
yet carried out, though it was made thousands of years 
ago by One whose word never fails. 

The martyr Stephen, in speaking of this matter, says 
of Abraham, in Acts 7: 1-5, that God “gave him none 
inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on.” 
And Paul, in speaking of the men to whom the promises 
were made, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their 
descendants, declares in Heb. 11:13, that “these all 
died in faith, not having received the promises, but 
having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, 
and embraced them, and confessed that they were 
strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” 

The Resurrection a Part of the Promise 

Inasmuch, therefore, as God promised the earth to 
these ancient worthies, and they died without having had 
the promise fulfilled to them, and as God’s promises do 
not fail, it is evident that there must be involved in that 
promise the resurrection from the dead. In order for 
God to fulfil his promise made to Abraham, the father 
of the faithful must be brought again from the grave 
and live upon this earth once more. The resurrection 
from the dead is therefore involved in the fulfilment of 
God’s great promise. 

To this thought agree the words found in Ezek. 37: 
12-14. 

“Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your 
graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you 
into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when 
I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of 
your graves, and shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I 


124 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord 
have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.” 

God will bring his people into their own land, the land 
of promise, the land of Israel. This he will do by bring¬ 
ing them up from their graves. At that time it will be 
seen by all that not only has he spoken it, but he has# 
also performed it. 

Our Part in the Promise 

It will probably be inquired, What have Christians to 
do with these ancient promises to the fathers of the 
Israelites? Much every way. All Christians should be 
intensely interested in the promise to Abraham, for 
Paul, in Gal. 3:7, informs us that “they which are of 
faith, the same are the children of Abraham.” And in 
the twenty-ninth verse of the 4 same chapter he says, 
“If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and 
heirs according to the promise.” 

The only promise, then, that we as Christians have of a 
future inheritance, is this ancient promise made to 
Abraham. We become heirs to that promise by becoming 
Christ’s, for we then become Abraham’s seed, to whom 
the promise was made equally with Abraham. The 
promise of God, then, to all Christians, is not that they 
shall inherit or spend eternity in heaven, but that through 
Christ they with Abraham become joint heirs with the 
Lord in the earth. They will spend eternity on this 
earth in its regenerated condition. 

Additional Promises 

And with this agree the following promises: 

“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former 
shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” Isa. 65:17. 

“Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens 
and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 2 Pet. 3: 13. 

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth.” Rev. 21: 1. 

“But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight them¬ 
selves in the abundance of peace.” Ps. 37: 11. 


The home of the saved 


125 


At that time also will be fulfilled the wonderful promise 
given to Micah: 

“And thou, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter 
of Zion [the church], unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion 
[the earth as it came from the hand of God]; the kingdom shall come 
to the daughter of Jerusalem.” Mic. 4:8. 

The Earth Regenerated 

From the fearful ordeal of fire through which the 
earth will pass when the wicked and all sin are burned 
out of it, it will emerge fully cleansed from every stain 
of sin. The Holy City will then become the capital of 
the regenerated earth, and the whole earth will become 
again like the garden of Eden. As “the wilderness and 
the solitary place’’ shall “blossom as the rose,” and 
“the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excel¬ 
lency of Carmel and Sharon,” the earth becomes what 
it was first intended to be, the eternal home of the people 
of God. Thus “the first dominion” is to be restored to 
the church. 

To Build Homes 

After the destruction of the wicked and the cleansing 
of the earth, the righteous will go forth from the Holy 
City, and “they shall build houses, and inhabit them; 
and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.” 
Isa. 65:21. The whole earth will be populated with the 
redeemed of the Lord. They will build homes which 
will never be destroyed. There will be no fear of fire 
or earthquake. Sin has passed forever. There will be 
none to make afraid. All will be peace and contentment, 
and unspeakable happiness will fill every heart. * 

Every month and every Sabbath day the people of the 
new earth will gather at Jerusalem to engage in the 
worship of the King of kings. Isa. 66:22, 23. Here in 
the city of God the redeemed will partake of the fruit 
of the tree of life. Here also they will wander through 
the groves which border “the river of water of life,” 


126 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


which proceeds “out of the throne of God and of the 
Lamb.” Rev. 22:1, 2. 

Never Again Any Sin 

“And there shall be no more curse.” Rev. 22:3. Sin 
has been destroyed and will never return. Every one 
of the created intelligences on the other worlds, all 
the angels, and every soul which has been redeemed at 
such an infinite cost, have fully decided that God is 
righteous altogether. They have had enough of sin. 
Thank God for the promise of the Word that when the 
Lord destroys sin “he will make an utter end: affliction 
shall not rise up the second time.” Nahum 1: 9. 

In that glorious land “my people shall dwell in a peace¬ 
ful habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting 
places.” Isa. 32:18. “Violence shall no more be heard 
in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; 
but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates 
Praise.” Isa. 60:18. “Instead of the thorn shall 
come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come 
up the myrtle tree.” Isa. 55:13. “And God shall 
wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall 
be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither 
shall there be any more pain: for the former things have 
passed away.” Rev. 21:4. “And the inhabitant shall 
not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall 
be forgiven their iniquity.” Isa. 33:24. 

And the New Jerusalem shall be “a crown of glory in 
the hand of the Lord, and a royal .diadem in the hand 
of thy God.” Isa. 62:3. “Her light was like unto 
a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as 
crystal.” Rev. 21:11. “The nations of them which 
are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings 
of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it.” Rev. 
21:24. “And there shall be no night there; and they 
need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord 


THE HOME OF THE SAVED 


127 


God giveth them light: and they shall reign forever 
and ever.” Rev. 22:5. 

Loved Ones Reunited 

And in the new earth I shall know “even as also I am 
known.” 1 Cor. 13:12. Friends and loved ones long 
separated by death will there be reunited, and they will 
know each other there just as they have known each 
other here. Their love and their sympathy for each 
other will be increased and will continue throughout the 
ages of eternity, never again to be broken by death. All 
the faculties of the human mind will be developed there, 
and our capacity for knowledge will be constantly in¬ 
creased. There will be no enterprise into which we can 
enter there that will be too great to be carried forward 
to completion. There will be no aspiration which cannot 
be reached. There will be no ambition which cannot be 
realized. There will be no end to the acquirement of 
knowledge. It will be possible then to travel from planet 
to planet and from system to system in the study of the 
treasures of wisdom and knowledge of the universe of 
God. Our companions will be the angels of God and the 
unfallen intelligences of the other worlds. 

The Life Everlasting 

And to all this there will be no end. As the ages of 
eternity unfold there will never be any fear that the 
years to come will bring an end to the happiness of the 
redeemed. When myriads of ages have rolled by, still 
all beyond stretches eternity. 

The time of the coming of Christ is near at hand. We 
may doubt it, dispute it, deny it now; but at that time 
we shall be compelled to meet it. Can the reader meet 
it with composure? Do you tremble when you think of 
it? Are you ready for that day? Are you in Christ? 
Are you safe? Have you obeyed God? Have you heard 
the great final message of the gospel? It has been sent 
to you—through this book, if in no other way—that it 


128 


OUR LORD’S RETURN 


may prepare your heart to meet God. Have you brought 
your life into harmony with it, and thus permitted the 
Lord to prepare you to meet him in peace? If not, 
let me plead with you to seek the Lord while he may be 
found. Before the door of mercy is shut, and while 
probation still lingers, believe the message he has sent 
to you and give him your heart. 

It may be, however, that you are a Christian. If so, 
God speed you on your heavenly journey. Christ’s 
love for you is very great, and your zeal for his work 
and glory should be proportionate thereto. The Master 
is about to come with rewards. What reward will he 
bring you? Be diligent. Remember the work of God. 
Strive to save those about you from the wrath which is 
to come. Give them, the message of his coming. Be 
zealous in giving the message, for in it is salvation. The 
time is too short for half-hearted work. God is calling 
for laborers now. Oh, give yourself to him for the finishing 
of his work in the earth. 

The kingdom of God on the new earth will soon be 
established. It will not be long until sin and sinners 
will be no more. The day of the Lord hasteth greatly. 
Do not be deceived by the wiles of Satan. He will take 
you captive if he can. The message of the coming of 
Christ is even now in the earth, and is being proclaimed 
far and wide. There is salvation in that message for 
you, and a preparation to meet the Lord in peace. Come, 
then, to Christ, who rescues the perishing, who saves the 
lost. Seek for his mercy. Cast away the sins which 
offend him, forsake the thoughts which insult him, and 
take him for your Redeemer and Friend. He has given 
his life that you may have an everlasting part in the 
glorified new earth. Oh, delay no longer. The time is 
short. The Lord is at hand. May he say to you who 
read these words, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit 
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the 
world.” 


For the Quiet Hour 

I N these times of change and uncertainty, such de¬ 
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or woman. They bring quietness and calmness, rest¬ 
fulness to the heart, and at the same time inspire to 
higher standards of living. 

Alone with God 

With the aid of many inspirational incidents, the author em¬ 
phasizes the importance of secret prayer and communion with 
God. Written in such a manner as to fire one with a determina¬ 
tion to live “the life that counts.” Beautifully printed on high 
grade paper, contains 128 pages, and is in cloth binding. Costs 
but 60c. In Canada, 70c. 

Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing 

Some of the grandest and sweetest thoughts ever expressed 
are to be found in this little volume. Every one of its 217 pages 
is filled with encouragement and help. Chapter titles: "On the 
Mountain Side,” “The Lord’s Prayer,” “The Beatitudes,” “The 
Spirituality of the Law,” “The True Motive in Service,” “Not 
Judging, but Doing.” Price, cloth, 85c. In Canada, $1.00. 

Steps to Christ 

Its worth and popularity are attested by the fact that it is pub¬ 
lished in twenty-three languages. Presents, in a simple and at¬ 
tractive manner, the steps by which the sinner may find Christ 
and be made complete in Him. Also a wealth of counsel and en¬ 
couragement for those who have been long in the way. Beauti¬ 
fully illustrated and bound. 144 pages. Cloth, 75c. In Canada, 85c. 

In Touch with God 

Prayer calms the mind, quiets the fears, subdues the passions, 
conquers habits, mollifies feelings, and is a general tonic for 
health and happiness. Did you ever look at it in just that way? 
Of course, it is more than that, as is brought out in this re¬ 
cently published book of 300 pages. Filled with helpful expe¬ 
riences of the author, of whom it has been said, “The man who 
wrote that book has been close to God.” Cloth only, at $1.00. In 
Canada, $1.10. 

Prices quoted are postpaid. 

Order through your tract society. 

PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING ASSN. 

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA 

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA 

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA 

PORTLAND, OREGON CRISTOBAL, CANAL ZONE 





































